I'd already known the theory behind what form a patronus takes, what with the possibility of it being your inner self, a near unchangeable love, or possibly the one whose memory you use often enough, or if the memory of them is strong enough your patronus takes their form. But I hadn't realized the Doctor was the fox. It makes sense, him being my best friend, only friend really, save the other companions or former companions I met with occasionally. He was a big part of my life, he made me who I am. It would make sense for him to be my patronus, my protector, and for his animal self to be a fox. Wily, cunning, slippery, intelligent, quick to escape, soft and fluffy hair, penchant for red accessories. Though foxes can't choose if they have red fur or grey or whatever, I suppose...either way, he was the fox.

I took the potion, a few days before Christmas when I was sitting alone in my rooms. The potion would let me connect with the animal inside myself, and hopefully it would agree to come out of hiding. Sometimes it took several tries for people to convince their animals out of hiding for that important, initial transformation. It was part of the reason Animagus were so rare, they tended to be unable to convince themselves it was worth the physical risk for a skill they didn't find particularly useful since they had to be registered. The potion was often needed several times, and it was a pain in the ass to make or find ingredients for. All in all I was glad I made several doses for it. I wasted the initial session making first contact and marveling over the mistake. No wonder meditation to find my inner fox was failing miserably. I had no inner fox.

I glanced at the Doctor, who was also reeling in shock. He was grinning a bit though,

"I thought I'd never know what my form would be."

I scoffed,

"If you'd told me you wanted to know I would have figured out a way."

He waved me off,

"It worked out, didn't it? In any case you have to wait twenty-four hours to try the potion again, why don't you venture out, actually eat with people."

I grimaced,

"No way, there's a flu going around still."

I had started limiting my contact with people several days before term ended, the many sick children scaring me away from my usual roaming sort of teaching style. I kept several cans of wizarding Lysol under my desk, ready to whip out and spray freaking everywhere the moment anyone sneezed, coughed, or spoke in a throaty manner. Most found it amusing, some annoying, and a few were grateful. My classroom smelled unbearably like lemons, even days after I stopped my maniacal cleaning because students stopped entering. But I had gotten away without so much as a sniffle so far, so I was feeling pretty victorious.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, slumping in his chair,

"I got you vaccinated from practically everything that exists everywhere from the beginning of time to the end of it, and I got it done right at the beginning of our travels. You are practically invincible when it comes to bugs, unless it's something they never found a cure for."

I held up my wand, raising an eyebrow pointedly,

"Did you vaccinate me for magical bugs?"

"...no."
"Thought not. But thank you. For the other stuff. I wasn't aware you did that."
"Of course I do, I take you puny little humans everywhere in the galaxy, I'm not going to leave you unprotected. That's so...irresponsible."

I resisted the urge to snort. Responsible wasn't really the first word to be associated with the Doctor.

"Well, perhaps I should risk going out into the world."

"You do that, I have a certain knight to meet with."

I swear, if he starts jousting again…

The halls were filled with students heading to dinner and I slipped in amongst them, hiding in plain sight while wearing jeans. I didn't even realize my hair was down for once until I got to the staff table and felt it brush the back of my neck as I sat down. I held back a grimace, hoping it wouldn't try to get away as I ate. I ran through the permutations of ingredients and mutations necessary to fight of Lycanthropy as I stirred sugar into my tea. If I had a blood sample and a microscope, or rather two blood samples, a microscope and that spell I took note of in that book on healing spells that scanned levels of various magic properties, then I would be in serious business. As it was I needed more information or I was going nowhere. But the Doctor was so sure that we could crack it together. My experience with Xeno-biology would probably help here, dealing with a foreign biochemistry like this.

I felt a jab to my left side and jabbed right back before looking up. Sirius. Of course it was. He raised an eyebrow at me,

"Thinking hard there, aren't you Mara?"

"What's it to ya, canine?"
He rolled his eyes,

"I wish you'd call me by my name for once. You can't still be angry over the whole 'hiding as a dog' thing."

I snorted,

"I was never angry with you, I know why it was necessary. That you told me at all was good for the ego."

He just stared at me, forgetting his food.
"Then why do you refuse to use my name?"
I shrugged,

"It was a sort of nickname at first, then I got used to it. It helped that your reaction to it was amusing."
He groaned, leaning back in his chair,

"Then if you're going to use a nickname use Padfoot please, I answer to that one already and everything! Canine is so...odd."

I cut off a giggle before it could fully form, choking a little.

"And Padfoot isn't odd? It's more random than Canine."
"But canine is a description, while Padfoot is an alter-ego, like Batman."
"If Padfoot is your alter-ego then you should only be called that when a dog...and how do you even know about Batman?"
"It was all my students wanted to talk about a few weeks ago if they had just left your class. I don't know why I can't get away with just showing films."
He was pouting now and I snickered,

"Because technically I'm showing history, or topics, themes, characters, and stories that affected history. Or I turn it into a muggle studies thing. It's a rather versatile subject if you think about it."
"Hmm, perhaps we could switch out next year, and then go back after that, fool the curse or something."

I contemplated it for a second, it would certainly prevent Um-bitch from fucking with my school, but…

"Do you know anything about muggle history? At all?"
He shrugged,

"I mean, I could always teach it Binns style."

I sighed, sinking into my seat and facepalming.

"So I would have to undo the damage the next year?"
He scowled, poking me in the side,

"Well, would you be capable of teaching defense?"
I shook my head,

"Nope," being sure to pop the 'p', "No chance of me being any good at that. I suck at dueling apparently."

I was examining the chocolate eclairs now on the table when my mind wandered to another chocoholic I knew. One who was a werewolf...a potential donor for the samples I need.

I turned to Sirius, expression, well...serious. I checked to make sure Snape wasn't in the room before casting Muffliato, separating us from the world.

"I have this project I'm working on…"

"When aren't' you working on a potentially illegal project?"

I scowled before continuing,

"I need your opinion…"

How sure was I about this route to a 'cure'? The Doctors word goes pretty damn far, but in order to bring it up would inspire hope, and if it was false…

I sighed, dropping the spell.

"Never mind. You wouldn't…"

I frowned into my eclair, wishing I'd just left it alone. I'm sure there's some old blood in the Shrieking Shack that I could scrape off the walls and rehydrate. It should be child's play to differentiate between dog, stag, rat, and werewolf.

He shoved lightly at my shoulder,

"What is it? Don't leave me hanging like that! I can help! I'm smart, I can handle your genius plans!"

I shh-ed him hurriedly, scowling at those that glanced our way.

"Jeez, keep it down!"

He pouted,

"Please Mara! I can help! Let me help with this one little bitty project!"

I groaned, hitting my head against the table briefly before sitting up, glaring at him.

"This project is not little. But it is top secret, got that? As in, if I share it with you and you tell someone unauthorized that we're working on it the consequences will be severe."

"How severe?"

"Satan would wince and tell me I was being harsh."

"...oh."

"Yeah. 'Oh'. Just...meet me in my classroom tomorrow, sometime after lunch and before dinner."

I drained the rest of my tea and left the room, still unsure about bringing him into the fold on any of this. I would have to spend a good deal of effort to relocate the Lycanthropy notes to my classroom. I wouldn't be able to bring him to my rooms, there were all sorts of incriminating things everywhere and I would never get them stowed away in time. Plus the Doctor would talk, and that wasn't something I needed. If he decided that Sirius should know all of our plans then he would tell him. And he was more likely than me to ramble and slip up, honestly.

I managed to relocate in time to try the potion before Sirius arrived. I was in my office, sitting cross legged under the desk, out of sight should anyone get passed the locking charms before I realized. I took a deep breath before downing the potion in one go. It tasted just as horrible as last time, like rotted cherries and stale bread. There was a tingling, followed by pain, and then I was falling. I landed in a white plane, disturbingly blank. My mind is an empty, empty place apparently. Or maybe it's the 'mindscape' or whatever that's blank. Have I just not gotten around to decorating or something?

I was interrupted by a low growling noise from behind me, and it began again.

I'll admit it wasn't smart of me to try something that can be time consuming when I'm on a deadline and expecting company but I was just so excited. Part of me didn't truly believe I was capable of becoming an animagus, the part that had grown up muggle, and the scientist as well. Both of those parts of me doubted it, but they were thrilled to death now that I was chasing my own tail under the desk. I didn't realize how much I'd expected to fail until I succeeded and just stared at my paws for a while. Then I realized I succeeded and lost my mind with glee.

Right up until the door clicked open and I realized that I was looking a very surprised Sirius in the eye. He just gaped for a second and then I realized, oh. Yeah. Illegal. Well, he is too, sooooo….

I concentrated on my human self, on having longer legs, a straight back, fingers and toes….it was a bit disorienting and I staggered a bit, but I was human again. I coughed in the ensuing silence,

"Erm, well...not what I wanted to talk about today...but I guess while we're on the subject, look what I've figured out I can do!"
I did jazz hands for several seconds and got no reaction. Finally I sighed, dropping my hands and dragging a hand through my now bedraggled hair.

"Fine, whatever. Come on, there's more surprising stuff in the classroom."

He choked, but got out of my way,

"More surprising? You're an illegal animagus!"
I rolled my eyes,

"Shouldn't there be a 'too' in there somewhere, buddy? And for all you know I'm registered in America."

He tilted his head,

"Fair enough."

There was a second of silence as I spread out the papers on my desk,

"So, what do you know about muggle science?"

"Um...we breathe oxygen?"
"Well, yeah. We do. I...actually hadn't expected even that much knowledge. Well, anyway. Here."
I handed him the papers where the Doctor and I had outlined our most promising potion, with a quill that wrote exactly what was said taking down the Doctors idea's while I was in class. We managed to combine them and revise later to get the mega-theory. It was true genius. Sirius stared at it like it was in hieroglyphics. Finally he looked up at me, deadpanning,

"I have no idea what's going on."
I sighed, taking back the paper.

"When taking another, deeper, look at animagus theory and putting a bit of science to it that theory came into being. How magic shifts human beings into animals. And how it shifts the Animagus back."

He stared at me for a second before running a hand over his face and groaning,

"I"m sorry, I don't follow. What's the point of this?"
I threw the paper down, opening a drawer in my desk and bringing out a runestone. It wasn't like a normal runestone, with a few smaller uncomplicated lines and arrays. This was mostly rune with barely any stone. I forced magic into it, calling up a magic fueled hologram that the Doctor had been hella proud of me for creating. This was DNA strands, specifically the strands of DNA that I had managed to get Zoopy to scrape off the walls of the Shrieking Shack, somewhere high up where the other animal blood wasn't likely to have reached. After checking it and verifying it was wolfy in origin rather than doggy or stag-like, or rattish, I applied it to the stone and tweaked it so it was easier to view. It was some sort of Iron Man, or Star Trek style stuff, and it was exciting.

I uncoiled the strands, blowing up the image so Sirius could see a certain point.

"Pay attention, I went without sleep last night to prepare this presentation."

He just stared at the glowing blue lines for a second before accepting it and moving on. Wizard raised people, jeez. Accepting all kinds of weird shit and not giving me a bit of awe. Now I know how the Doctor felt when he got a lackluster response from the military types. I also get why he didn't like them much if they did it to him all the time. I huffed, pressing play on the animation part, showing the morph of the gene, the rugged edges, the choppy transition, and the finished product.

He leaned forwards a bit,

"So, is this what happens when an animagus shifts?"
"Nope."

I plopped out another stone, showing the dog DNA Zoopy had accidentally brought. Sirius' own DNA, actually. I played the animation, a smooth shift from one to the other, and back again.

"This one is animagus. The first one is werewolf."

Sirius stiffened, suddenly paying much closer attention to the two models in front of him.

I pushed them closer together,

"If one were to use a potion to replicate the way an animagus goes from human to animal, only apply it as going from a dormant werewolf to a dormant animagus transformation then instead you get a human whose animagus form was a rather large, no longer infectious, wolf."

His gaze turned intense, eyes meeting mine.

"Like you?"
I huffed,

"No, not like me. I'm not rather large. Nor have I ever had Lycanthropy."

"But you could have! With your memory loss, what if you had it before, got rid of it, then lost your memory shortly afterwards!"

I resisted the urge to sigh. He wanted so badly for this to be possible.

"Of all the scars I have none of them is the initial bite of a werewolf that can never be gotten rid of."

"Are you sure? Do you need to check again? Perhaps help-"

I snarled, now surprisingly easier to sound animalistic. Some of Madame Vastra's tips had either gone too far or the wolf was integrating with waking human me far faster than I had assumed it would.

"Sirius. I am naturally a wolf animagus, alright? But if you help me then we can get this cure to become reality rather than theory, if it pans out. Are you willing to help me and risk failure?"
He didn't even hesitate, Gryffindor through and through.

"Of course I'm going to help with this! What do you need? Money? I've got plenty of that tucked away."

I rolled my eyes,

"Perhaps later when we need to bribe the ministry or burn it down to the ashes in order to get them to make it legal and readily available should we succeed."

He nodded, and I mentally blessed him for accepting that we might have to completely tear down the government of the magical part of his country.

"What I really need are active samples."

"...what?"

"A vial of blood from a werewolf so I can run scans and tests. The stuff that this diagram consists of is from too old of samples for me to get real readings from. I won't know anything until I have various samples."

"Why didn't you just mail Remus yourself? I know you're still in contact."

"Mail can be intercepted. And you're going to visit over Christmas aren't you? Harry mentioned it, after the Yule ball or something. And...I'm loathe to get his hopes up and fail. You know him better. You'd know what to say to make sure it doesn't happen, I'm sure."

I took a deep breath,

"And then there's the fact that I would like some of your blood for a sample as well, if you don't mind. The different samples from both normal wolf, werewolf, and dog, would help with identifying the progression of the gene, and the 'magic' therein."

He blinked at me, eyes slightly glazed.

"I'll take your word for it on the technical stuff. And if there's even a chance it will help Moony then I'm in."

I smiled, relieved.

"Thanks."

"Thank you. Everyone's given up on a cure, they only research wolfsbane, and even that wasn't really for the werewolves benefit, more for control."
I shrugged,

"It just sort of came up, so I chased it."

He sniggered,

"Yeah, there's dog in you."

I scowled,

"The first bitch joke I hear from you I'm going to throw you to Minerva."

He rolled his eyes, hand placed mockingly to his heart.

"Why I would never!"

"Sure, sure, whatever."
Well, I had an ally in one aspect of my plans. But could I trust him with any of the other things?

~TimeLordOfPie