Hands began to smack tables and feet began to stamp on the tiled floors. And whispers became roars.
"Harry! Harry! Harry!"
Dumbledore lifted his head and held his wand up, the tip lighting up. One by one, the other staff left their seats and formed a line down the centre of the Great Hall, one by one they raised their lit wands and one by one they let their tears fall. They were quickly joined by students from every house. Cedric lead the Puffs, Cho Chang lead the Claws, Percy lead the lions and, in a move that shocked Titania, Draco Malfoy lead the Slytherins. Soon the Hall was filled with light
Titania leant into Fred's side and the older boy wrapped his arms around her, as she sobbed. He wasn't aware that her tears were from relief not sorrow, but tears were tears and he knew what to do with a crying girl. You held on and you didn't let go.
Luna looked at her friends and sent up a prayer of thanks to Lady Magic. Her friend's future was her own.
Paddy eyed the children and young adults getting off the Express and he was quite surprised at what he saw. Yes, there were red eyes and sad faces, but there was also a quiet strength clearly visible on almost every face. The kind of strength he remembered seeing on Harry, Hermione and Ron's faces, of seeing on James, Frank, Gideon and Fabian's faces.
The faces clearly told that they'd lost a friend, but were doing what they could, in their own way, of honouring that friend.
"Da!" Titania's voice reached his ears and he sighed in relief as his arms closed around her.
"Oh, kitten, are you alright?" Held her tight, before pushing her back to look her over.
"I'm fine, Da, I'm fine."
"They both are, Mr Grimmley." Paddy looked away from his daughter and focused on the other students gathered around them.
"Luna. Fred, George. Lee" Each of them were gathered up and carefully hugged. "Fred, George. Your parents are down the far end of the platform. Your father said that if you wanted, you're permitted to come home with us. Something about your mother was going to be so focused on your younger brother and sister and not wanting you to feel left out. But the choice is yours." Paddy assured them.
Fred and George exchanged looks, slightly alarmed at the thought of having to deal with a frantic mother.
"We'll come with you, please." Both twins spoke together and George went on. "Don't wanna face mum in a fussing mood."
"Not if we can avoid it." Fred added.
"Ah, like that is she?" Paddy knew exactly what Molly Weasley was like in a 'fussing mood', even if he couldn't say that.
"Yes." Boy twins nodded.
"Fair enough. I'll catch your father and let him know." Paddy turned to Lee. "And what of you, Mr Jordan? Are you joining us, too?"
"Yes, please. I had already planned to stay with the Weasleys, before this. My mum's out of the country for the next week, at least." Lee answered.
"And your father?" Paddy asked.
"Dad died when I was little, he was an Auror." Lee replied.
"The war?" Paddy asked and Lee nodded. "Damn, sorry, kid. Aright, so you're coming, too. Fine. Head for the floos and I'll meet you there in a couple of minutes, I just want to let the Weasleys know I've got you all. Don't need Molly to get into a panic because she can't find you."
"Yes, Da." Titania grinned and grabbed Luna and Fred's hands and began to drag them up the platform.
The expressions on Fred, George and Lee's faces when the flock descended on Titania, as she entered her bedroom, was enough to make Luna, Paddy and Titania laugh.
"So, obviously, this is Titania's room. Luna shares with her, when she stays over. You three boys are across the hall, sorry but you're going to have to share, this place has only got four bedrooms and the fourth one's being used as an office-cum-library." Paddy pointed that the various doors. "Now, while this is Titania's bedroom, it's also the only room with a balcony large enough for the flock to use. So, I'm trusting you. You can come in here, but the door stays open and you do nothing that you wouldn't want happening in your sister's room. Got it?"
"Got it." The three boys nodded.
"Good. Each bedroom has its own bathroom, so you don't have to worry about girl products in the shower."
Lee grinned. "Thank god. My sister graduated and she's technically left home but the shower still has her shampoo and Merlin help anyone if they use it. She's vicious."
"Well, we're not." Titania said.
"Not about that, anyway." Luna added.
"Bullies, and them deliberately hurting someone? Now that's a different story." Paddy warned.
"Understood." George nodded and Paddy gave them a grin.
"Dinner will be in an hour, put your trunks in your room and get settled." He headed for the door, before pausing on the threshold. "Oh, one more thing. This place? This is our sanctuary. It's warded to a fare-thee-well, took the goblins a whole week to do it. As a result of that, the Department for Improper Use of Magic can't detect anything happening here. So, you're free to use your wands."
"But… the Trace?" Fred asked.
"Nope. Titania's been using a wand since she was nine, here." Paddy replied.
"Really?" George blinked.
Titania nodded.
"We use magic whenever we want." Luna said.
"Wicked…" Both twins exclaimed.
"So, first Animagus lesson." Paddy said the next morning, causing all five youngsters to transfer their attention from their various breakfasts, to him. "You've all taken the Identifying potion. Yes?"
"Yes, Da." Titania nodded. "Fred and George are Red Magma Kites and Lee is a Havanna Brown."
"A… A what?"
"Havanna brown, it's a type cat, Da." Titania huffed.
"Okay, I think I need to see the five of you in your other forms, so for today, we're going to reuse the Identifying potion, so I can get pictures of each of you. You'll want them when it comes to start the actual transformation process. Trust me, you'll want them." Paddy warned.
Fred and George frowned. "None of the books we found, said anything about pictures. Why pictures?" George asked.
"Didn't you have pictures, Da?" Titania asked.
"No, I didn't." Paddy shook his head. "And that's why I'm saying, you'll want them. Doing this without them is… It took me three years to complete the change properly. Once I had it, it was simple, but getting to that point was a nightmare. Let's avoid that, huh?"
"What about a mirror, too, Uncle Paddy?" Luna asked.
"A mirror?" Paddy blinked. "Why?"
"We can look in the mirror, while you take pictures." Luna replied.
"Oh, I get it." Lee gasped. "You can take pictures as we move, we can see the movements in the mirror and feel what it's like to make those movements. All at the same time. And looking at the pictures later will prompt us to remember how that movement felt."
"Yes." Luna nodded.
"Huh." Paddy grunted. "Yeah, that might work."
"Worth a shot." Titania nodded.
"Alright." Paddy held out a tray of phials. "Who's first?"
"I'll go." Lee reached for a phial and quickly headed for the living room before he opened the phial and swallowed the bright blue liquid down, while Titania pulled out a camera and Paddy conjured a mirror.
"The mirror will only last an hour, so once Lee's done, someone else needs to step up pretty quickly." Paddy warned. "However, I've spoken to a couple of healers and owled Professor Snape, to double check. You can take the Identifying potion more than once but no more than once a day and for no longer than a week."
"You told Snape we were trying to become Animagus'?" Fred squawked.
"Animagi." Paddy corrected. "And yes, I did. We had an interesting talk about you lot. Brewing in abandoned classrooms is not good. The ventilation isn't right. Go see him when you get back and he'll assign you a spare lab to use. There's heaps of them, apparently, and they're for the students to use."
Fred and George wore innocent expressions as they looked around the room, while Lee dropped his head in amusement. That movement continued and Lee shrunk to the floor, a strangled sound coming from his altered throat. He stood up and shook himself, which caused his reflection in the mirror to catch his attention.
A strange chittering noise came from his mouth as he looked at the sleek cat in the mirror. Large upright ears twitched, while his long slender tail swished from side to side.
"You're supposed to move around so we can get pictures of you in motion, Lee." George nudged the cat with a foot, earning himself a flat look and warning yowl, that by the look on cat-Lee's face, caught the boy-in-cat-shape by surprise. But the cat stood and walked around the room, his head frequently turning to mirror, to study his reflection. As he walked back across the room to the mirror, he stumbled as he change back to a boy in mid-step.
"Whoa…" He whispered. "That's a rush."
"Mr Grimmley?" George asked.
"Paddy, George. Call me Paddy. Or if you can't then make it Uncle Paddy."
Fred and George had a fast no-words-needed conversation and nodded.
"Right." George said. "Uncle Paddy. What's the difference between the Animagus Identifying potion and the Initiation potion?"
"The Identifying potion controls your shift, while the Initiation potion allows you to control the shift but only lets you shift into the form the Identifying potion has previously shifted you into." Paddy said. "You have to take the Identifying potion at least three times before you can take the Initiation potion. Today makes at least twice for all of you. We'll do this again tomorrow and then on Monday, we'll use the initiation potion. That's when the hard work starts."
"How long do you think it will take us to be able to shift? Fully, I mean?" George asked.
"We've got you three for ten days." Paddy said. "I'm kinda hoping you've got it by then, if not, you're going to have to wait until you get back to Hogwarts to keep trying."
"Why?" Lee asked.
"If you work on this by yourselves and get stuck, someone's going to have to use the Animagus Reversal charm on you and unless you intend to tell Molly Weasley that you're working on becoming animagi, that's going to have to be one of you three, and I don't know what wards the Burrow has." Paddy answered.
"Ah, right. No, we're not telling mum Weasley." Lee grimaced.
"I didn't think so." Paddy snorted. "Who's next?"
"Me, Da." Titania stepped forward.
"Right you are, kitten. Here" Paddy handed over a phial. "Drink up." And Titania did just that.
A few seconds ticked by, then Titania leant over. She sighed and as she breathed out, she changed. Gone was the pretty blonde girl and in her place was a young snow leopard, just entering that gangly-limbed stage of adolescence.
With feathers protruding from its shoulders.
"What the…?" Fred tilted his head in confusion. "Where did the feathers come from?"
"And why?" George added.
Paddy didn't answer, he was too busy pressing the shutter release on his camera and Luna just crouched down and looked at cat-thing-Titania.
"Think about your wings." She said. "Open them out, spread them out. Uncle Paddy needs to get pictures."
The cat-with-wings mreowled and walked around in circles, then the feathers spread out and became wings.
"Aww…" Lee crouched down beside Luna. "You're so cute…" He gushed. Titania-cat gave him a flat look and used her long whippy tail to swat at his face. "Bleh…" He wiped his face on his sleeve. "Yuck."
"Serves you right, Lee." Fred snickered and high-fived his twin.
Remus Lupin sighed as he walked along the quiet street in Glasgow. He was the last of his friends, the last of the Gryffindors of his year, the war had taken them all.
Well, not all… Sirius was out there… somewhere…
Remus wondered how he'd know, if he passed Sirius on the street. Bloodline conversion completely overrode an existing bloodline and would change his appearance. He could look like anyone. Remus would never know, would never find him. It would be up to him to approach Remus.
He turned the corner from the quiet street into an even smaller street, letting he feet drag him away from Glasgow Cathedral and towards the University of Strathclyde. The street curved slightly and he let himself fall into an ambling stride.
As he passed a carpark, a long-forgotten scent wafted passed his nose.
"What the…?" He frowned. His nose twitched and his head turned. A few more strides and he reached another side street, he turned down it and paused a few yards later. A smear of blood on the road drew him, before he stood and backtracked towards the nearest building. Through a squared off archway and into a quiet courtyard, he followed his nose around and into a second larger garden with a few trees and bushes creating sheltered spaces. Closer and closer, he drew towards that remembered scent. Finally, he stood under an old oak tree and watched as a scrawny young cat washed its face, as it did the scent faded.
"Hello, there, little one." Remus crooned. "Did you eat him? I hope he doesn't make you sick."
The cat's head lifted sharply and it tensed ready to run. But the wizard's scent was… familiar… She licked at a paw again and the wizard's scent wafted up from the blood under her claws. Her last meal had smelt of him. She meowed quietly and eased forward, the scent drawing her closer.
"Oh, hey." Remus smiled as the cat sniffed at his fingers. Her head pulled back and she looked at him, again. "Would you like to come with me?" He eased forward and gently lifted the cat into his arms, giving her time to understand that he meant her no harm. "There we are." He kept his voice calm and soft. "Let's get out of here, you're too pretty to live like this."
The pair walked the almost-mile to a nearby vet clinic, where Remus introduced himself and explained how he'd found the young cat in the Necropolis gardens and that, as she'd taken a liking to him and he had taken as much of a liking to her, he had decided to keep her. Would the vet have a chance to check her out and give her whatever treatment she needed?
It took an hour, but eventually, Remus left the clinic with the cat, now called Flossy, in a close approximation of the Latin translation of 'flower', after the flowers she'd grabbed any time Remus walked close enough for her slender legs or long neck to reach them. In a bag, which had been shrunk and shoved into a pocket, the moment he was out of sight of the clinic, there were all the necessary supplies to keep Flossy in food and toys for a month, while the cat herself sat on his shoulder and proudly wore a sparkly new collar and harness. True to Remus' Gryffindor sorting, it was a rich red leather with gold studs, buckle and a shiny golden tag, that had her name of one side and his details on the reverse. A matching red leather leash draped over his arm and swayed with each step.
"Right then, Flossy. Let's head home, shall we?" Remus reached up gently drew her down into his arms and after checking that he was out of sight, he cast a ten second notice-me-not on the corner of the building and as he walked around the corner, he held Flossy firmly and apparated to his home.
Flossy went rigid in his arms before snorting in surprise, but she never drew her claws or tried to bite him.
"Home, Flossy." He lowered her to the ground and cast a spell to seal the house, before standing in front of Flossy and shifting into his Animagus form.
Flossy saw the man become a wolf and she her arched back and bared her teeth, hissing at the wolf. The wolf lay down and whined. Flossy waited but the wolf never attacked, it lay on its stomach and whined at her. Eventually, her natural curiosity got the better of her and she edge towards the wolf. The scent of her human (her wolf?), filled her nose. The scent of calm, of quiet, of warmth, swirled around her and as she eased closer, the scent got stronger. The scent was coming from the wolf.
Flossy leant against the wolf's neck and began to wash its ears, her paw resting on the wolf's snout, the wolf snorted but made no move to get out from under her paw. Minutes passed and the pair settled down to snooze in the late afternoon sun.