"Tomorrow's Halloween."
"I am aware of that," Regulus answered from his vantage point twenty feet in the air. He'd sprung up a tree when that hulking black thing had come racing through the clearing several hours before. Sirius suspected it was a thestral— he knew there were a few of them around Hogwarts— but this explanation had either failed to convince or failed to comfort Regulus. "What about it?"
"Oy. Honestly, Reggie, will you come down from that tree?"
Regulus blinked. "What does that have to do with Halloween? Or anything else in the discussion for that matter?" he asked. Nevertheless, he finally obliged his brother and clambered down the tree. Clearly the fox was far more suited to climbing than the man was.
"Nothing," Sirius admitted cheerfully as Regulus reached the ground. "I was just getting a crick in my neck from staring up there so long."
Regulus rolled his eyes theatrically. "I hope you're not expecting pity. Now really, Sirius, what about Halloween?"
Sirius shrugged. "Well, everyone'll be down at the feast tomorrow night, won't they?" he asked. "No one'll be lurking in their common rooms; the only people that won't be there'll be in the hospital wing. It'll just be . . . you know, the cats and the toads . . . and the rats. . . ."
"Oh. That." Regulus ran his fingers through his hair distractedly, regarding his brother oddly for a minute. "Look, whatever it is that guards the Gryffindor common room is not going to simply let you stroll in without the password, is it?"
"I'll think of something."
"Clock's ticking," Regulus pointed out. He adjusted his glasses— a sure sign to Sirius that something was making him nervous. "You've got about twenty-four hours to come up with a plan, and if you can't I hold you back by the collar of your robes all night if I have to."
"Deal," Sirius said.
"That was a statement, not a proposition," Regulus mumbled. "I was going to hold you back if you agreed, and I was going to hold you back if I had to stun you."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "I can get in."
"Really? Then have you already come up with a plan?"
Sirius shook his head. "Not exactly. But trust me, Reggie, I can get passed her. And let's face it, how many opportunities like this am I going to get?"
"You mean opportunities to do something incredibly stupid?" Regulus asked dryly. "I'm sure you'll get more than enough of them." Sirius scowled, and Regulus shook his head. "All right, all right. Not a lot of opportunities to get at Pettigrew. But really, Sirius . . . it is awfully dangerous."
"So was breaking out of Azkaban!"
"Yes, but they weren't going to kiss you if they caught you breaking out, now were they!" Regulus exclaimed angrily. He rubbed his temples. "Just be careful, Sirius. And don't kill him."
Sirius nodded, watching his brother with some concern. "You're sure you're okay, Reggie?"
"Yeah. Just worried about you. By the way, it's your turn to hunt."
Sirius grinned at this. "You're just trying to get rid of me," he accused.
"Bingo." Regulus grinned back. "That, and I was the last person to actually catch something. Go on, I'm out of patience with the world right now, let alone you."
"You ran out of patience with me not long after Mum did."
"I thought you figured out I was trying to get rid of you," Regulus pointed out.
Sirius laughed, transformed, and disappeared into the forest.
"I'm going in."
"Like hell you are. It's not quite dark yet, so no one'll be down at the feast yet," Regulus pointed out. Like Sirius, he was staring fixedly at the castle, hoping Hagrid didn't chance to glance at the Forbidden Forest from his hut right now, because otherwise he would have seen what appeared to be a convicted murderer and a Muggle standing just inside the trees.
"You saw the kids all walking down to Hogsmeade as well as I did," Sirius reminded him. "Chances are they're all still there. If I can hide, I can watch them when they come back and get the password."
"No. If Filch doesn't catch you, that monster cat of his will. Even if you're a dog, he'll cause an absolute uproar and you'll never get in."
Sirius couldn't argue with this. "Never thought I'd hear of a cat you didn't like," he said with a weak grin. "And there's no way she's still alive."
"Filch is as 'bad' as I am on the subject of his cats," Regulus pointed out drily, making quotation marks in the air around the words Sirius had used to describe his view of Anna. "He'll have gotten another one. You said you'd think of something. I hope that wasn't it."
"Well, yes and no. It was one of several," Sirius mumbled. He reached into his pocket and fingered the knife he'd hidden in there. Fortunately, Regulus's eyes were still trained on the castle, because he really didn't feel like explaining its presence to his brother.
Ten minutes passed in silence.
"Reggie, you have to let me go in," Sirius pointed out. "Else I'll never be able to get at Peter, and without Peter I'm almost back to where I started."
"Not yet, I don't," Regulus growled.
"Who elected you my keeper?" Sirius demanded.
"Somebody has to do it, Sirius," Regulus answered tartly. "And considering what everyone else thinks of you, I guess it has to be me."
Sirius started an argument, which did more for Regulus's cause than his own, because they were at it for half an hour before Regulus glanced up at the stars, checked his watch, and announced, "All right, just go. But be careful."
Sirius started towards the castle but paused. "Er, Reggie?" he asked, turning around. "Can I borrow your wand?"
Regulus raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because you're right. With Filch I'll probably get thrown right back out if I'm a dog— unless the rules have changed since we were in school, after all, they aren't allowed in there. Disillusioning myself's the better bet right now, isn't it?"
Regulus smiled. "So you do have some sense. It had better only be disillusionment, though, Sirius." He started digging through his pockets.
Sirius shrugged. The Fat Lady had probably seen him as a dog, James as a stag, and Peter as a rat before— Remus had always been chastising them about being careful— but right now he didn't want to remind her, not when she might go to Dumbledore. To him, she was a much more pressing concern than Filch. He just knew not mention this to Regulus. The Slytherin guardian, after all, was inanimate.
When Regulus handed him the wand, he performed the spell and shoved it into his now camouflaged pocket. "Be careful," Regulus requested again as he stalked off.
Sirius shook his head and made his way to the castle. Inside, he was glad he'd disillusioned himself, because students were still making their way to the feast, and so there was no way he'd have made it very far as a dog. Still, avoiding people was sometimes a challenge. He came within a hair's breadth of hitting Harry's redheaded friend as the two of them, along with the girl who owned Crookshanks, came down a staircase.
Somehow, however, he made it up to Gryffindor Tower without getting caught and removed the charm. Since it was Regulus's wand, anyway, he heeded his brother's words and stuck it right back into his pocket. Then he approached the portrait.
The large woman in the Renaissance-style dress Sirius had been looking for was dozing in her frame by the time he got there. He hesitated for a moment, but he knew he'd never be able to pry to portrait hole open— it had to be spelled— let alone do it without waking her up. "Excuse me? I need to get in," he announced, tapping the portrait.
She jerked awake and turned to look at him. Instead of sleepily asking for the password, which she had always done when he was in school, she yelped. "Sirius Black!"
"Yes, yes, quiet down," Sirius growled. "I just need to get in."
"I ought to call the headmaster," she pointed out.
Sirius considered the consequences of trying to explain the situation to Dumbledore without any proof but a photograph and the word of his brother, a former Death Eater. "Please don't. Like I said, I just need to get in for a few minutes. I'll get it and go, okay?"
The Fat Lady glared suspiciously at him. "Get what?"
"A rat! That's all I'm in for, just a rat. Now let me in," he growled.
"Why do you need a rat from this common room?"
Sirius shook his head, frustrated. "You never used to ask so many questions, even when four of us came in at two in the morning. Just trust me, I need a specific rat, and he crawled in there."
She seemed to relent. "I will tell the headmaster," she grumbled. "And do you know the password, Mr. Black?"
Sirius sighed. "You know I haven't gotten a password in" —he paused, doing the math— "almost seventeen years. Just let me in, will you?"
She shook her head. "I don't want to let you in, anyway, so I'm certainly not going to do it without the password."
"You did what?" Regulus asked, for at least the thirtieth time.
"I lost my temper, all right?" Sirius snapped. "I haven't blown it off properly in thirteen years, anyway, since you're too little to really fight."
Regulus shook his head. "Where'd you get the knife, anyway?" he demanded.
Sirius groaned. He'd known Reggie was going to ask that question, and he'd been dreading it. Occasionally, though thankfully not very often, Regulus reminded him of their mother with his interrogation. "I, er . . . borrowed your wand and transfigured a piece of wood."
"Oh."
Sirius blinked. Three . . . two . . . one. . . . he thought, waiting for the explosion.
"That was, without a doubt, one of the stupidest things you've ever done," Regulus announced. He'd gone white, but he was still calm. Evidently he wasn't that much like their mother. In fact, neither of their parents stayed at all calm when they got angry. It reminded him, more than anything, of Professor McGonagall, and so Sirius wasn't sure whether to be glad of it or not. "With knives, after all, comes the temptation to use them. Which you did."
"Reggie, please. What would you have done in my shoes?"
"Walked away quietly like any sensible person and hope she didn't carry through with her threat to tell Dumbledore. You realize the security around here is going to double, don't you?"
"Yes."
Regulus shook his head. "Just making sure. It's obvious you weren't thinking when you stabbed a portrait, after all," he pointed out. "I don't suppose you're going to let me change the knife back, are you?"
Sirius shook his head.
"Well, I thought I'd ask. Give me my wand back and let's get further back in the woods, all right?" Regulus asked.
Sirius shrugged and handed it over. "Shocked you haven't lost your temper with me."
Regulus raised his eyebrows. "You were the one that inherited Mum's temper. D'you think I'd've gotten on with her much better than you did if I couldn't control mine?"
Sirius shrugged. "Fair enough."
Remus Lupin shook his head and half-collapsed into the chair behind his desk. What a night. Not only was the full moon approaching— and Severus Snape kept making snide remarks about this when he brought Wolfsbane— he had just spent half the night looking for the man that used to be one of his best friends. He didn't want to think about either of them, let alone deal with them both at the same time.
"Sirius. . . ." he mumbled tiredly, but couldn't think of anything to finish his sentence with. For the thousandth time he wondered what had gone wrong after they'd left school. With the bone Sirius had had to pick with his family, Remus would have considered him about as likely to turn to the Dark Lord as James. But then again, blood was thicker than water. . . .
Snape chose that moment to enter the room, interrupting a gloomy train of thought. Remus looked up tiredly to see who it was, and noted the goblet in his hands. "Why now?" he groaned.
The potions master lifted an eyebrow. "Well, if you would rather eat your students, I can't say I'll object too much," he replied acidly.
"My apologies, Severus, it's just been a horrible night," Remus mumbled. "Thank you."
Snape rolled his eyes and set the glass on the table. Then, having already made a snide remark, he turned around and left. Remus shook his head, relieved. He hadn't expected any sympathy from a former rival, but he was afraid Snape would start on Sirius as well as werewolfism. Of course, after what happened to James and Lily he couldn't very well forgive Sirius, but it was one thing to know that and another entirely to hear it come out of Snape's mouth, when Snape would have believed anything of Sirius and James— and of Remus himself and Peter, now that he thought of it.
Remus shook his head and reached out for the goblet. Snape was right; he'd better take that now. And plan lessons through the next full moon so a substitute would know where his classes were.
Anything that would keep his mind off the presence of the moon and of Sirius.
Author's Note: I'm glad everyone liked Crookshanks, since he is a bit pivital in the PoA plotline. . . and may cause more banter, since I have a weakness for writing it. Anyway, Mizz Moony Luver, to answer your question, no, Crookshanks is not an Animagus. He's just half kneazle (insert obligatory plug for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, since its for charity). And thanks to imakeeper, Gabwr, and SupportSeverusSnape for also reviewing. Cheers! -- Loki