Regulus dropped out of the trees, becoming human as he hit the ground. Sirius looked up in surprise from where he was trying to start a fire. Regulus glanced at the pile of wood, pulled out his wand, and lit it magically. "Well, I certainly saw something worth noting," he told his older brother. "What's Remus Lupin doing here?"
"Remus?" Sirius asked, truly mystified. He ran his fingers distractedly through his hair. "I dunno . . . teaching?"
Regulus lifted an eyebrow. "A werewolf? Really, Sirius, not even Dumbledore would hire. . . ."
He faded off under Sirius's glare. "It could happen," Sirius snapped. "Remus always was the one that was good at explaining things and with the younger kids. And Dumbledore's been known for weirder staff appointments. Besides, I still want to know how you figured out he was a werewolf. And why you never told Mum."
"I never told Mum because if I respected any of the four of you, honestly, it was Lupin," Regulus answered. "I found out he was a werewolf as I was sneaking around trying to figure out what you were up to when you became Animagi. I never mentioned it because you would have killed me."
Sirius shook his head. "You're as bad as Snape, Reggie," he announced.
Regulus snorted. "I know you meant that as an insult, but I could choose to take it another way," he answered. "You might never have approved of him, but Severus Snape always did have the ability to put two and two together without much help."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Maybe. Well, one of us probably needs to go hunt—"
"I'll do it," Regulus said automatically. "I think it's my turn."
"You're Animagus is only the size of a rabbit."
Regulus shrugged. "Hasn't stopped me yet, has it?" he pointed out. "And it isn't as if your bigger size has gotten you any more success."
"I do bring down bigger game when I succeed," Sirius pointed out.
Regulus shrugged as if it didn't matter— which to him, it probably didn't, because keeping them fed took up time Regulus would have otherwise spent being bored and Sirius brooding. "Yes— when you succeed, which is rarely. And are you going to do something stupid while I'm gone?"
"I was going to go lurk by the lake and see if I can figure out what Remus is doing here."
"That qualifies as stupid," Regulus pointed out. "Lupin'll recognize you. Up until a month ago, he'd seen you transform much more often than I had, hadn't he?"
"I will be the one doing the seeing, thank you very much," Sirius snapped. "And it's not like you're my mother. Thank God." He transformed and stalked off before his brother could say another word. Frankly, he was starting to get sick of the way Regulus was acting— like he needed a nanny.
Fortunately Regulus did not seem to think this idea was stupid enough to be worth stunning him, and so Sirius was allowed to stalk to the border of the Forbidden Forest in peace. He lay down, half hidden because he'd squeezed into a crevice in a large rock, and watched.
He didn't see Remus— he wasn't entirely sure he'd expected to, really— but he did see Harry, who was apparently trying to mediate between a redheaded boy and a girl who was clutching a large ginger cat. The cat seemed to be the cause of the argument, as the redhead gestured emphatically at it as he talked.
The cat was struggling in the girl's arms, and eventually leapt out of them and went bounding towards the woods. "Crookshanks, no!" the girl hollered.
The cat, Crookshanks, paid no heed, not that in Sirius's limited experience cats ever did.
Harry and the other boy stopped the girl from following her cat. "Really, Hermione," Sirius heard Harry tell her. "He'll be back."
"But there are all sorts of things in there," Hermione replied. "He could get hurt . . . or eaten . . . or—"
"Better him than Scabbers," the redhead retorted.
"Oh, honestly, Ron, shut up about your rat!"
Rat? Sirius wondered absently as the bandy-legged cat charged towards him. Crookshanks stopped a few feet from the crevice, his tail twitching and his thick ginger coat standing on end, making him look twice his already formidable size. He hissed.
Sirius growled back, fighting the canine instinct that came with this body, the urge to give chase.
The cat, if anything, looked indignant rather than frightened. He extended a forepaw and scratched Sirius across the nose, still hissing angrily. Sirius felt his own fur standing on end. The dog in him wanted to chase this animal up a tree. The human just wanted to slip out of the crevice and go away as quietly as possible.
Crookshanks let out a yowl.
"Look, he's already in trouble!" Sirius heard Hermione call.
As she rushed forward to look after her cat, Sirius thought it wisest to listen to the human in him. He slid backwards out of the crevice, still growling a little at Crookshanks, and disappeared into the woods once again.
When he got back to the place they'd been camping for the past week and a half, he found Regulus roasting a rabbit. He looked up when Sirius entered the clearing. "I'm not talking to you as a hulking dog," Regulus informed him.
Sirius changed, slightly irritated that after the exchange earlier in the afternoon Regulus had caught something, but hungry enough not to mention this right now. Besides, he was still slightly bothered by that cat, and he wanted the cat lover he knew was lurking in his brother. "I know this sounds odd, but are they any cats that can recognize Animagi as . . . not actually animals?"
Regulus shrugged. "I'm sure a kneazle could," he answered. "I don't think an ordinary cat could, though. I don't think Anna ever knew the fox was me, at any rate, and she was a pretty bright cat."
Sirius snorted, well aware that Regulus's blindest spot had been his gray tabby.
Regulus lifted an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"
"There was this enormous cat that came right into he trees and started spitting at me," Sirius said. "he wouldn't leave me alone, at least not until his mistress came running into save him. I wondered if maybe he knew what I was."
"Sirius, you were in the form of a dog," Regulus replied. "Dogs and cats don't like each other. They never have. It was probably just that."
"But it's dogs that attack cats," Sirius answered sensibly.
"You said this thing was enormous?" Regulus asked with a smile. "Maybe the only dogs he's seen before are lap dogs or something. Perhaps he thought he could take you. And judging from the gash on your face, he could."
Sirius raised his hand to feel blood streaming down his nose. "I didn't want to kill it," he said defensively.
"Really?" Regulus asked sarcastically. "Honestly, Sirius, fifteen years ago if it had come down to a contest between 'Padfoot' and my cat, my money would have been on Anna."
Sirius raised an eyebrow, but he knew better than to argue. He and Regulus knew perfectly well he wouldn't have ripped Anna to shreds, though as a dog he was capable of it— she had meant too much to Regulus. Sirius had been terribly self-absorbed as a teenager, but he hadn't been blind and he hadn't been cruel. "I'd've let her win for your sake," he announced. "When's that going to be done?"
"Give it another five minutes," Regulus answered.
Sirius shook his head and pulled the photograph from the Daily Prophet out of the pocket of his robe. The redheaded boy was in there, with Peter on his shoulder. He'd seemed convinced that Crookshanks was going to eat his rat. Regulus had a point when he'd mentioned the animosity between cats and dogs and of course cats considered rats their prey, but still, it was odd that the cat had been so intent on him and Peter. . . . He shook his head, slipped the photo back into his robe, and started to tease his brother about Anna.
Crookshanks turned out to have the somewhat irritating habit of seeking Sirius out and hissing or simply examining him whenever he crept to the edge of the lake as a dog. He never saw Peter— he supposed he'd have to try getting into Gryffindor tower after all— or Remus, and only rarely Harry and his friends. He slipped instinctively back into the trees at the sight of a few of Hogwarts's constants— McGonagall, Dumbledore, Sprout, and Flitwick, among others. Slughorn seemed to have retired, or at least Sirius never saw him. He'd had enough to time to wonder absently who the current Slytherin Head of House was before Crookshanks came prancing back into the woods to hiss at him.
The funny thing was that the cat never seemed to go after Regulus, who aside from being Crookshanks's size, was the cat lover. That Reggie usually did his scouting from trees shouldn't have been a barrier for a cat.
After he'd resigned himself to the idea that this cat was not going to leave him alone, Sirius slowly began procuring his trust. It was over a week after he'd come to this decision that Crookshanks would do anything but flee back towards Hogwarts when Sirius transformed into a human and a few days after that before Crookshanks let Sirius pick him up and take him farther into the Forbidden Forest to introduce him to Regulus.
Despite the near darkness, Regulus did not appear to be around. It was a little while before Sirius noticed the small grey creature lying at the edge of the firelight with his tail draped over his head. With his foot, Sirius lifted the tail far enough to see the gray and tawny fox underneath.
After a moment's indecision, Sirius put Crookshanks down beside Regulus. The cat took one look at the fox and pounced.
Crookshanks was at least Regulus's size and probably a little heavier, and he also had the element of surprise. Regulus woke up with a series of panicked yelps, started to stand up, changed his mind, and tried to shield his face with his tail. After a moment, he seemed to decide that he was clearly not going to win as a fox and transformed into a man again. Crookshanks, still hissing, was perched on his shoulders.
After a short fight on more even grounds, Crookshanks was sitting still in Regulus's arms, looking more surprised and curious than mollified. "Yeah, yeah, my cat could be a monster, too," he told the ginger animal. "You'd've probably gotten along." He looked up at Sirius and raised an eyebrow. "I suppose that was your idea of a joke?"
"It was kind of amusing, yeah," Sirius replied, sitting down.
Regulus shook his head and sighed. "I suppose this is the cat?" he asked. Without waiting for his brother to reply, he added, "He really is enormous . . . gorgeous, too. . . ."
"If you don't count the fact that he apparently ran into a brick wall, I might be able to buy that," Sirius answered, eyeing Crookshanks skeptically.
Regulus shook his head, examining Crookshanks. "What do they feed you, that you got so big?" he asked the cat absently, examining his ears and tail. "Yeah, Sirius, the cat has kneazle in him. His ears are a little big and there's a bit of a tuft on the tail, although you can hardly tell, he's so fluffy. But it doesn't explain the size, and I think this is the biggest cat I've ever seen."
Sirius nodded absently. "So you'll believe me when I tell you he knows were Animagi?"
Regulus shrugged. "I'll consider it."
Crookshanks tired of behaving himself for Regulus and took a swipe at the man's already scarred left arm. Regulus jumped and dropped the cat, leaving Crookshanks to wander over by the fire.
While Regulus was muttering and trying to stop the blood flow on his arm, Sirius picked Crookshanks back up. "Look, we know about Peter— the rat. If you catch him, can you bring him back here?"
"Really, Sirius, he's a bright cat, I'll give you that, but cats talk even less than dementors," Regulus muttered, raising his head. "You can't honestly expect—"
He shut up as Crookshanks nodded.
"All right, then," Regulus muttered. "Smart cat. Why don't you take him back up to the castle, Sirius, before the owner starts to worry about him?"
"You're actually trusting me near the castle?"
"Only because the cat obviously likes you more," Regulus muttered, a little sulkily. "G'night, Sirius."
Sirius grinned as he transformed into the dog and started to lead Crookshanks back to the castle.
Author's Note: This particular chapter was fun to write just for the introduction of Crookshanks. Well, the cat aside, thanks to Gabwr, SupportSeverusSnape, and imakeeper for their reviews (imakeeper: I'm not entirely sure what you meant by the plot twist; if you would care to tell me. . . ?). Anyway, be sure to tell me what you think of chapter four. Cheers! -- Loki