I woke only a few hours later because of a nightmare. It was the standard thing, surrounded by writhing darkness as the clank of cybermens heavy boots draws nearer, with those I care about dodging the blasts of a Dalek's laser across a chasm I couldn't cross. Sirius had joined several incarnations of the Doctor, firing spells at the Daleks and dodging the attentions of a few Silurians who weren't as agreeable a Madame Vastra.

I ended up stumbling into the shower in the bathroom attached to my room. I spent perhaps half an hour just standing under the water, trying to get myself together. When I exited the room I had put on jeans and my Weasley sweater. I had left my socks and shoes in the other room, so I padded barefoot back into the bedroom, pausing when I saw something on the bed. My hair was still slightly damp, and I pushed it back out of my face to see the lump on the bed was an animal. A very large black dog that was grinning at me. I raised an eyebrow and it jumped of the bed, landing on the floor with a solid thump and then dropping down into the classic 'play with me' pose that mocked a yoga position. I stared at him for a second,

"Really? At four in the morning?"

He yipped, albeit quietly. Everyone else was probably still asleep. I rolled my eyes.

"And you said Harry would be the one up early."

He yipped again and I placed my folded clothes on the end of the bed,

"Fine."

I had been practicing with my transformation, but I was nowhere near as smooth with it as Sirius, or even Pettigrew. I was like a stumbling baby deer, Bambi when he stepped onto the ice. I looked drunk whenever I went back human. Though going from human to animal was much, much easier, and I didn't want to think about why I might be more comfortable as animal than human. I reached into myself and pulled just slightly, feeling everything go slightly fuzzy for a second and then I was smaller, looking up at Sirius, or perhaps Padfoot at the moment, and thinking about how it wasn't fair that he was still bigger than me. He's a dog and I'm a wolf, isn't that top of the canine food chain? Well, in the magical world I suppose werewolf tops all others.

I had no idea how to act as a wolf, and it showed. Padfoot rolled his eyes before starting a game of tag. I wasn't aware it was tag at first, only realizing I had been lightly bopped on the head by a very large paw. I stared at him for a second, affronted. He went to bop me again and I snapped at his paw on instinct. I blinked, surprised at myself, but he didn't seem to mind. He tried to bop me again but I rolled out of the way, snaking a paw out to swipe at his side. Things escalated from there. I ended up chasing him around the house, we abandoned quiet when he ran into a small table in the hall that held an empty vase. The vase didn't break, instead bouncing off the floor and rolling away into the shadows. We froze, staring at one another. When nothing moved in the house it started again. We blurred through the kitchen, and I screeched to a halt before I could run into a decrepit house elf. We stared at one another, but Sirius was getting away so I couldn't stay for long. I would have to get the locket from this guy at some point, unless he had put it in the display case already, like in the novels. I gave it a sound lick to the edges of its ear before running off, tracking by scent. I found him in the living room, sniffing at the presents. I huffed, pretending to bite at the end of his tail. No cheating with the gifts allowed. I bopped him on the head, and ran, dodging the furniture. He leapt onto the couch, taking advantage of the higher ground. I tensed my legs to tackle him but both of us froze at the sound from the doorway.

The both of us tilted our heads slightly to look and found both Remus and Harry standing in the doorway. Shit. Harry had a tray of cinnamon rolls, judging by the smell, and Remus had a tray of several mugs of cocoa. Sirius shifted back smoothly, stepping off the couch as a dog, and landing on the floor as a human, walking towards them and grinning. He was wearing pajama bottoms, and a matching t-shirt, both dark shades of plaid.

"Good morning! Who's ready for presents!"

I attempted to slink off through the other doorway only to freeze once again when Remus cleared his throat.

"And who is that behind you, Sirius?"

I glanced up at him, tail tucked between my legs. Amber eyes of a werewolf. Instinct told me without a doubt that he was in charge, even as a human. Bummer. Good for research though. I filed it away in the back of my head and focused on being human again. It was one of my smoother transitions, sitting down as a wolf and then ending up as a cross legged human a second or so later. I did the mini-jazz hands routine once again,

"Um, surprise?"
Remus rolled his eyes,

"Good morning, Mara."

Harry's mouth was gaping open slightly and I realized he probably hadn't seen me like this before, hair down, no shoes or socks. This was as casual as I got. My feet had small scars all along the bottom from running without shoes over all sorts of alien terrain, and the tops had small blotches of burn scars from an incident with acid and a very pissed off slug creature. Too late now. I let the silence continue for a second before standing, clapping my hands together.

"So, food?"

Harry snapped out of it, stepping forward and putting the tray on the low coffee table, Remus following suit. The both of them were wearing actual clothes, obviously just returning from buying the food.

They at least waited until I was handed a cup of cocoa and food before they started with the questions. Harry couldn't take it anymore, losing the battle to hold his tongue almost as soon as I had taken a sip of cocoa.

"So you're an animagus too? I thought it was like difficult and super rare?"
I shrugged,

"It's more inconvenient. And difficult to get your hands on some of the ingredients."

Remus' face was blank where he was sitting in an armchair, holding a cup of cocoa and nothing else.

"Yes, how did you get your hands on those ingredients?"
I shrugged, taking a bite as an excuse to keep from answering. Like I had hoped Harry's next question saved me from having to give Remus a real answer.

"So you're a dog like Sirius?"
I shot him an affronted look,

"I am a wolf, thank you."
"I thought people couldn't be wolf animagi, only werewolves."

I shrugged,

"Well, apparently not."

Sirius looked excited, practically bouncing in his seat on the other end of the couch from me.

"There are going to be a lot more if we have our way."

"SIRIUS."

He looked like he'd been punched before grinning madly,

"You said my name."
I groaned, slumping down in my seat and clutching my cocoa in both hands, cinnamon roll long gone.

"Yes, I did, and you are giving out classified information, remember?"

He was still grinning like a loon,

"What, it's not like they're going to put it together."

Harry was watching us, his expression neutral. He raised an eyebrow,

"It sounds like you're planning on having puppies or something."

Remus spewed cocoa, giggling madly, former mood gone. Sirius was just eyeing his godson, expression just as blank, and I had no idea what my face looked like. Probably horror or a raging blush. I cleared my throat,

"No, that's...not the plan."

Harry shrugged,

"Well, until I'm told differently that's what I'm going to believe. Why wasn't I told I was getting a little sibling? It's exciting, I can teach them to fly, Mrs. Weasley can knit them a little sweater, Remus here can read them all sorts of things and be the godfather, it'll be nice."

I was now certain I was a rather unflattering shade of red, I didn't dare look at Sirius, not wanting to see his expression. Remus was joining Harry, nodding along,

"Oh, I don't know if I'd be the godfather, Sirius would like that but I'm not sure Mara would appreciate it, she might have someone in mind."

The Doctor. If he was here, he would have been the godfather if I ever had kids. No, don't fall for this. I looked at Harry and Remus warily, still avoiding looking at Sirius. Remus was joking, but I'm almost positive Harry wasn't. Oh god. He ships it. I made a funny noise in the back of my throat,

"Tell them."

Sirius looked over at me,

"Wha?"
I rolled my eyes,

"The project, just tell them, before these theories of theirs get out of hand."

Sirius grinned at me, face lighting up once again and I had to look away. He scooted forwards in his seat, setting down his cocoa on the table.

"Our brilliant Mara here-"

"You sure she's not having puppies?"
That kid. I'm going to give him so much homework.

Sirius just rolled his eyes,

"I'm sure she's not having puppies." He paused. "You aren't, are you?"

"...no. I am not having puppies."
"Ah, alright. Anyway, our brilliant Mara here has got a tentative idea, well it looks pretty promising to me, but I'm not a, what's it called again?"

"Biologist."

"Right, I'm not a biologist, so I'm not sure. Anyway, Mara might have a way to find the cure for Lycanthropy!"

Remus' cup shattered, shards scattering around him.

"That's not funny, Sirius."
I leaned forwards, waving a hand and repairing the cup, putting it on the table. I regretted leaving my wand in my room now, if he got angry with us then I was going to be next to useless.

"Remus, he isn't joking."
He looked up at me, eyes wide and disbelieving.

"There is no. Such. Thing. As a cure."

I set my empty mug beside his.

"I'll explain it, if that will help you to believe us."

He nodded, a sharp, jerking motion.

"I attended muggle college, I have a bachelors in Chemistry and Masters in a form of biology. In using muggle science and magic theory together I was able to isolate the way that DNA shifts for the animagus transformation. It made me think about the shift back and how to replicate that sort of control with werewolves. It's all in the lining of the double helix. With werewolves Adenine and Guanine are trying to pair. This isn't possible. Adenine pairs with Thymine, it's fact. It's bumping into each other and then just finally fitting in whatever way it possibly can before the lycan unravels at the seams. When all of it reassembles on the full moon, where it's tugging at the werewolf gene like the tide, I wrote a paper about that, the DNA shifts to that of a wolf, but the faulty pairs ends with the loss of human mind, unlike with an animagus, and with the werewolf being contagious. The saliva contains the faulty gene, which spreads and wreaks havoc. It's just a case of a few missing hydrogen bonds and some proteins synthesizing weird. Should the treatment work it wouldn't be a 'cure' per say, it would make the change voluntary and the bite non contagious. In essence the 'cured' werewolf would instead be a rather large wolf animagus. The wolf wouldn't be lost, just fully absorbed as it was meant to be originally."

Harry was looking around at all of this, wide eyed, cocoa forgotten. Remus was staring blankly at his hands. He drew in a shaky breath,

"And when would this 'cure' be available?"
"If the ministry doesn't stonewall me with the process of getting it tested, registered, and approved, then by next Christmas."

"How...how are you so sure?"

I shrugged,

"There were samples lying around and when the solution was introduced it behaved as it should. I just need it to go through the rest of the process to be legal and streamlined. Honestly the ministry wouldn't let it go through by next Christmas if I took it to them, they'd want to use it to make money or as a form of control. That's why I'd like to hold it back until the ministry is run by more competent people. Sadly that won't happen for a while, but if I build up enough blackmail against the right people I can get it slipped in through the cracks."

"...oh. How much...how much are you thinking it will cost?"

I raised an eyebrow,

"You, sir, are getting one as a Christmas present, if you'd like. It should be free, a given for medical care. But the ministry won't see it that way. If they legalize it and try to make a business of selling it then I'll make it out of my basement and hand it out like candy. Or start a legitimate business and have vials of them in a mint bowl. You shouldn't have to pay for a cure."

He met my eyes, just looking at me for several seconds.

"Why would you do that?"
I shrugged,

"My grandmother died when I was young. It was treatable, but we didn't have the money. That's not the way it's supposed to work. If I have the means to help then I don't want to hold it back for reasons as stupid as money."

He smiled, a rather small one, but a smile all the same.

"I have a feeling you would have been a Hufflepuff."

I shrugged,

"I was told I would fit into Ravenclaw."

He breathed in deeply, sitting up and running a hand through his hair.

"Well, if this all works out then consider yourself honorary Ravenclaw."

Sirius clapped his hands together in the following silence,

"I think it's time for presents, what about you, Harry?"
This was met with enthusiastic agreement, and the two jumped up to hand out presents. I was even given a few. My gifts to them hadn't been opened yet, sitting under the tree until they were handed out. The atmosphere turned light after that, laughter and jokes flowing freely. I got a ton of candy from Harry, a book on Quidditch of all things from Remus, and was opening the last little box that had Sirius' name on it. I was wary of it, knowing his past as a Marauder there could be any manner of disaster in it, no matter the small size. Sirius noticed my wariness from his side of the couch, rolling his eyes.

"Oh come on, I didn't rig it! Who have you been talking to about me that gives you these ideas? Was it Snivellus?"

"Don't call him that."

"So it was Snivellus."

"No, it was not. I don't interact with him outside of determining detentions for the Slytherins."

"Then why do you bother to defend him?"
"Because it's rude to call people names."

I pulled off the ribbon, a lovely shade of blue, TARDIS blue. I took a second to just run it through my fingers. Coincidence, probably. I opened the box, staring for a second at what was inside. It was a necklace on a light colored chain, possibly silver. The charm on the end was an orb, a dusky black, with shining white lights inside. Constellations. If we were in London like the book had said, then it was the constellations above us. I looked up at him, wide eyed.

"It's beautiful. Thank you."

He grinned, sitting forwards from where he was lounging.

"Here, let me help you put it on."

His hands were large and warm against my neck, and I barely had the brain power to spare to worrying about if him touching the chain for the TARDIS key would break the perception filter. It held, and he retreated, the necklace settling at my throat.

"It shows the stars above you, no matter the time of day. You always mentioned wanting to see the stars before, but the Dementors would scare you back inside."

I huffed,
"I was not scared, I have a healthy respect of them is all."

He rolled his eyes and I elbowed him. Harry was examining the Quidditch gloves he'd gotten, and Remus was looking through the book I'd sent him. Sirius, however, still had his eyes fixed on me.

"I never did thank you for helping me. Without you I'd have killed the rat and never been free. So, thank you."

I averted my eyes, probably turning red again.

"No problemo, amigo. Have you opened the one from me yet?"

It was a blatant change of subject, but he went with it, opening the lumpy package. It was a black tshirt, muggle style, that I had charmed. It said "I'm not saying I'm Batman, but we've never been seen in the same room…"

I had charmed it so it would change size to fit properly once he put it on. I put a lot of effort into it, and it wasn't until last night that I actually realized why. But he beamed when he saw it, snickering.

"This is brilliant! That Batman person is totally wicked from what I've gathered."

I blanched,

"You still havn't seen Batman!"

Harry shook his head sadly,

"We can't let that stand."

Remus was watching the three of us, amused. I patted my pockets for a second before remembering my wand was in my room still.

"I guess we'll have to watch it another time. I can't work layered illusions for that long wandlessly."

I stared mournfully at the blank wall I could have used as the projector screen. I was interrupted in my thoughts when sockless feet landed in my lap. I gave Sirius a blank look. He just grinned back at me, continuing to sue me as a footrest.

"Not a chance. No one leaves the living room on Christmas until at least noon."

"Christmas was yesterday."

"Boxing day then."

I rolled my eyes but didn't move to get up,

"I hope you know I had set aside today to finally grade those exams."

"Really? You actually gave paper exams before Christmas? I tested them doing a couple of spells and left it at that."

I scowled,

"Well, I had planned physical test like that but Minerva didn't clear it. I'd actually assumed Snape would be the one who didn't want me to dress his kids up in armour and have them joust. Turns out he was the only one all for it."

Harry was wide eyed,

"Joust? Like in medieval times?"
"Of course. Use thestrals as horses...Different test for every year, to fit the time period I was teaching them. Of course there were objections to every single one of them. Turns out taking them back in time to actually see Woodstock isn't allowed."

"You could do that? Go that far back in time?"
Remus was looking at me strangely now, so I shrugged,

"I knew quite a bit about time before I ended up in St. Mungos. My life goal is now to avoid Veritaserum, who know's what's in my head. In any case I had to give paper tests in the end, poor bastards. Every answer was C. You should have seen their faces."

Harry looked torn between being affronted and amused.

"Ron nearly lost his mind over that! And Malfoy looked like he was going to be ill! Don't even get me started on Hermione!"

I shrugged,

"The Ravenclaws were split in half on it, some of them lost their minds, the rest realized what I'd done after five questions and just filled in the rest without reading it. I could have tripped 'em up on that, made the last one A or something. Hmmm, ideas for next time."

Sirius was watching me warily,

"I'm very glad you weren't teaching when I was in school."

"Hm, me too, I hear horror stories about you, worse than the twins, they tell me."

His eyes glazed over slightly and he smiled widely,

"Ah, the Weasley twins, wonderful troublemakers they are. And I hear rumors that you enable them."
I clapped a hand to my heart, effecting a wounded look.

"What? How dare you! All those ideas are accidentally shared!"

Harry rolled his eyes,

"Professor, they're the only ones who had a 'boring' detention with you. Everyone else leaves swearing they're scarred for life."
I snorted,

"They don't have any idea what I've got planned for future indiscretions. The next uppity pureblood that crosses me get's to help out the House Elves in the kitchen."

Sirius pretended to be offended,

"I take offense to that!"

Everyone in the room turned to stare at him simultaneously, giving him a blank look. He was in his pajamas, hair wild, sprawled on the couch, with his feet on top of a guest.

The silence stayed for several moments until Harry coughed,

"Erm, so there definitely are no puppies?"

He sounded downright gloomy, and for some reason I felt inexplicably guilty. I floundered for words, turning to Remus for help. He shrugged so I turned to Sirius, who was making faces at Harry, seemingly trying to communicate something without words. Remus and I watched the both of them for a few minutes, completely lost. After a moment I cleared my throat,

"Ah, no. No puppies. If I ever have kids it will be after I replace the upper echelons of the British Ministry of Magic."

"So you have a spouse back in America?"

"Nope."

"But how can you be sure?"
"I don't remember magic, my life outside of it was mostly untouched. I lived alone, thought about getting a pet. Sometimes I would randomly drop everything and travel the world on a whim."

"Sounds nice."

I shrugged,

"Meh, I was retired from it before this mess happened."
"Why? You're still young, aren't you?"

I glanced down at the scars on my feet before looking back up at Harry.

"I got into a bit too much trouble. It was decided I was better off at home, where it was less likely someone would try to kill me."
Harry snorted, toasting with his cocoa,

"Been there."

I grinned, toasting with my empty mug.

"They're just jealous of our awesome hair."

Both of our hair was currently a bird nest, sticking up every which way.

The conversation moved along, the fairy lights leaving the tree and bobbing around the room. All in all, the best Christmas I'd had in years.

~TimeLordOfPie