Chapter 3: Hope, Horror, and Hair... Fur

Hiya! I know that like four or five of them are mine, but honestly it was so awesome to see that 100(ish) people have checked out my story. Don't expect any sort of regularity out of posting because my life is kinda crazy right now, but for now, here's the next chapter. It's kinda choppy, but like I said, having to make up all this pre-canon stuff as I go and it's not the easiest in the world. So forgive me for speed running a couple of years. Also I gotta say, coming up with chapter titles is hard. Anywho, let's get into it!

Andromeda and Ted Black-Tonks walked out of their heavily warded home down to the edge of the ward lines, a pair of… contrasting figures waiting at the edge of the ward line.

Despite his seventy-eight years, Lord Arcturus Black still held himself with a perfect posture, practically radiating power. This was a man that had fought in the Global Wizarding World and had not only survived, but had held his own. There was still a fair amount of black in the man's hair despite the encroaching gray that seemed to spread further and further with each passing year.

Beside him was a much less severe figure. Xenophilius was only twenty-three years old and had a spark in his pale blue eyes that could only be described as adventurous. A healthy dose of curiosity with a smidge of boldness and a pinch of foolhardiness. It had taken the Sorting Hat quite some time to settle on Ravenclaw for the eccentric blond who nearly had headed to the house of red and gold. While Arcturus stood with a sense of controlled power, Xeno made no such postures, openly glancing around the surrounding area and practically bouncing at the chance to actually meet an Animagenus.

Ted and Andi bowed and curtsied respectively to the Lord Black before both shook the Lovegood's hand, Andi concentrating for a moment before adding him to the wards and leading the other three back up to the house.

Nymphadora "Tonks" Black was sitting upside down on the couch in the living room, her legs dangling up in the air, her hair currently long enough to reach the floor with a streak of light blue running through her brown locks. In her hands she held Babbity Rabbity and was reading to herself. On the ground beside her, Leo Black was playing with his stuffed lion, both on all fours and jumping back and forth at one another, occasionally letting out cries at one another.

On spotting her parents coming back in, Tonks quickly rolled back over and stood up, slightly awkwardly curtseying to her uncle while Leo gets up to his feet with a grin running over and practically leaping into his father's arm, causing Ted to let out a breath as he caught his young son. "Careful there, Leo, won't be able to do that soon enough!"

The young boy giggled while Xeno glanced around the room taking note of the pair of plushies that were both curled up around one another now that their owner had moved away. He smiled at the young girl "Hello there, dear. My name is Xenophilius Lovegood and I'm here to see if I can't figure out just what's so special about your little brother."

Tonks scrunched up her nose slightly at the man's name causing Andi to laugh when she saw it "See now Nymphadora, you really don't have it too bad now do you?" The young girl just let out a harumph and plopped back down on the couch.

Arcturus made his way over to one of the armchairs while Ted, with Leo, and Xeno moved over to the other couch, Andi joining Tonks. Xenophilius pulled out his wand slowly and held it up in the air.

"Now then, this ability is rare enough that there isn't a spell to specifically recognize Animageni, but with your permission, I'll cast a lesser known spell that can tell if there are any Animagi within range by causing their bodies to glow" the blond explained before receiving a nod from Ted and Andi. Xeno spun his wand through the air for a few seconds in a more complicated pattern than one might ever see outside of a Charms apprenticeship before speaking "Revela Animagos cum Lux Caeruli Clara!"

A blue light shot forth from his wand and spun around the room before bursting into sparkles that rained down over the room which slowly settled. As the sparkles fell onto Leo's head, a blue light started to emanate from him bring a smile to Xeno's lips

"Well there you have it. Unless your three-year-old has undergone the years of meditation and preparation, he's definitely at the very least a natural Animagus. As I said, there's not a definitive way to test for him having more forms other than him actually turning into them. He could still actually be a Parseltongue. Still though, imagine if it really were true. Mr. Tonks have you looked into your past at all since Lord Black and I met?"

Ted rubbed his neck "Well, I know my granddad did always say we were descendants of the vikings themselves but I haven't put any really research into it. And honestly, the thought that the Norse gods might actually exist and my being a descendant of Loki… it seems… a tad ridiculous."

Xenophilius let out a gentle laugh "Says the man sitting in a room with five magic users, with a daughter with a confirmed rare magical talent and a son with an even rarer one. If I recall the goblins have genealogy tests for when lines die but I'm not sure how it might react to a god's blood or what it would show. I can't imagine the magic would target your muggle bloodlines as that would be a massive waste of parchment."

At this point Arcturus spoke up "They do indeed have the ability to look into the genealogy of wizards, yes. If I recall correctly, there are some stories of muggleborns actually being descended from squibs and reopening old thought-dead lines, though it hasn't happened in quite some time."

"Yes, well that's all well and good, but where do you think we should go from here. Will my son just pop into a lion or a snake one of these days and attack us?" Andromeda asked

Xenophilius paused for a few moments "Well if you know of an Animagus you trust, you can speak with them about figuring out how to get the transformation to work. There haven't been any cases of Animagi giving in to their animal instincts to that extent, but there also aren't exactly recent records on such a young one."

Ted and Andi nodded to one another and decided that they would be giving a floo call to Sirius and possibly James as well to work with their son.

"Well thank you very much for doing this for us Mr. Lovegood." Andromeda said as she got back to her feet.

"Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm of course fascinated by rare magical occurrences and these two young ones definitely fit under that banner. If you have any more questions, please give me a call whenever you please. I would love to hear more about any discoveries you might make, particularly if he does end up being an Animagenus" Xenophilius also got to his feet, heading for the fireplace and grabbing some fireplace, waving a goodbye to the Blacks before vanishing in a plume of green fire.

Arcturus then got to his feet as well "Well then, I suppose you'll be contacting young Sirius then. I wish you the best and also wish to be kept notified on my nephew's progress. I will eventually get in touch with you about giving him some lessons in how to conduct himself as a true Lord, but I think I'll wait until he's at least seven." He finished heading for the fireplace with a small smirk dancing on his lips.

Andromeda and Tonks joined the rest of their family on the other couch, all with varying smiles. "Well looks like our kids truly are amazing, huh Andi?" Ted asked, squeezing Leo gently eliciting a giggle from the small boy "Maybe if we have a third kid they'll be able to turn into any item they like" He suggested with a laugh only resulting in a groan from his wife and a similar giggle from his daughter.

Wednesday, September 17, 1979:

"So the little guy really is a natural born Animagus, huh? Possibly with more than one form. Man and I thought us Marauders were crazy learning it during fifth year!" Sirius's head let out a barking laugh from the fireplace.

"Yes, yes, you and your friends are all so special, cousin" Andromeda responded with a smirk, crouching down to speak with him. "Now then, do you think you would be able to work with Leo?"

Sirius let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his head "Well I mean… I don't really know. I mean, I'll be happy to work with the kid but about half of the training is just figuring out what your form is. The latter half of that is transfiguring yourself bit by bit until you can finally transform your entire body. I don't know if he'll have enough concentration to actually visualize whatever animal… or animals he can turn into, let alone the magical power to back up the actual transfiguration. I won't promise a little lion romping around the house in a couple weeks but I can at least talk to him about what the sensation feels like. Hell, maybe he'll be like Dora and it comes more naturally to him"

Andromeda nodded letting out a sigh "Right then. Ted and I were talking and he's been buying some animal books about cats and snakes to read with Leo to hopefully help him learn more about them."

Sirius grinned "That sounds like a pretty good idea. I know that we probably would have benefitted from having the extra info while trying to figure out what we were. I can talk to James about it, but I think he and his new bride have been quite… otherwise occupied now that they're officially married if you know what I mean."

October 12, 1979:

Andromeda gasped, nearly dropping the letter she held shakily in her hands causing Ted to look up from where he was sitting in front of the fire, their children long asleep "It's… it's Regulus… he's dead…" She murmured quietly.

Ted quickly stood and pulled her into a hug, gently taking the letter from her "Kreecher delivered him to Grimmauld but refused to say where they had been…" he muttered to himself "The same year as Orion too… I thought Arcturus was joking but if something Merlin forbid would happen to Sirius that would most likely make Leo the heir after your grandfather and father…"

Andromeda took a shuddering breath, wiping her eyes dry gently "Not even a year out of Hogwarts… he just had to get involved with this stupid bloody war…"

Wednesday, November 7, 1979:

"James! James, the light turned blue! James I'm pregnant! We're going to be having a baby boy!"

The loud thud of a body hitting the ground could be heard over the redhead's joyful cries, though the grin on the fainting man's face lit up the whole room.

Saturday, December 22, 1979:

"Alright, I want you to be very careful now Leo. You remember when your Mom put the cookies up on the counter but you wanted another one really bad and the tin popped up beside you?"

The toddler nodded proudly with a small grin "Mhmm! Mommy was mad when it happened but also really happy I used my magic!" the three-year-old declared proudly.

Sirius chuckled and nodded "Right. I want you to try and picture that same feeling that you felt right before they appeared and concentrate it on your left hand. We're going to see if you can't turn it into a paw. I know your sister told me that whenever she changes it just comes naturally to her so we're going to see if it works similarly for you. Don't stress out too bad though if it doesn work, we've got plenty of time to work on this talent of yours."

Leo nodded and scrunched up his face, staring at his little hand and trying to remember the feeling of his magic inside. He had always felt something… similar to that just under the surface and it had started to become more active ever since his Mom had had him start trying to concentrate on it. He let that feeling flow out towards his hand and tried to combine the two sensations into doing what he wanted!

"Well would you look at that! There's definitely some more fur on that hand than there was before. That is an awesome place to start man! Now let's see if we can't change it back."

The Black heir wasn't quite as jovial as he once was. Similar to many families, this war had taken his father and brother from him. He might not have been close to them, might not have even agreed with their ideology, but still. Even so, he kept his mood light when working with his little cousin, the pride at his progress helping him through the pain of loss.

Thursday, January 10, 1980:

"...as the seventh months dies…" the deep voice of the bedraggled figure spoke out in a shabby back room before a quiet thud echoed out in the hall, attracting the white haired man sitting across from the woman before he quickly focussed back on the rest of her words, ignoring the quiet retreating footsteps for now.

"...but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Albus Dumbledore sat back in his chair, taking in the true prophecy that had just been spoken to him before sitting back up with a twinkle in his eye and a new hope beating in his heart "Miss Trelawney, I think Hogwarts would be delighted to have you on her staff."

Thursday, March 27, 1980:

The unmistakable cry of a young girl rang out through the Black-Tonks home, sending Andromeda and Ted rushing up the stairs to their daughters room. Finding no one there, they shifted over to their son's to find Dora sitting on the ground sniffling and their son whose face was definitely not human.

His whole face was covered in a light tan fur, his nose had grown and jutted out a bit more, his eyes were a bright amber and he had a small fang poking out of his mouth which was currently set in a frown.

Ted swiftly swept up his crying daughter in his arms and held her tight "Hey, it's alright sweetie, what happened?"

"Leo scared me!" She cried out glaring down at the young boy who still hadn't turned back and was glancing at the ground as his mother slowly approached.

"Leo, sweetie, did you scare your sister?" she asked quietly while wrapping him into her arms.

"She was teasing me 'bout how her powers were better than mine" the toddler whined. "So I wanted to prove I could do it…"

Andromeda sighed and walked over, sitting down on the side of his bed with him in her lap, Ted walking the still pouting Tonks over "Alright you two, there shouldn't be any of this. Trust me, I know a thing or two about sibling troubles but both of you are in the wrong. Nymphadora…" the young girl flinched when her mother used her full name "You shouldn't tease Leo since he's still learning how to use his abilities. And Leo, you shouldn't try and use your powers without one of us around yet, okay. We don't want you to hurt yourself. Can you make your face normal again?"

"Yes Mommy…" they both murmured quietly before Leo scrunched up his face and the fur slowly receded, his eyes blinking back open they're normal gray. "Now, that is the furthest I've ever seen you get before and I'm very pleased with you, but you need to be careful about mixing your emotions in with the ability, okay?"

"Okay!" Leo agreed, happy to receive his parents' praise

Wednesday, July 30, 1980

Frank Longbottom gently laid his hand on James Potter's shoulder as both men stood in the waiting room of the maternity ward of St. Mungo's. The man was a few years his fellow Gryffindor's senior, and had a calm smile on his face, even if his heart may have been pumping at least as hard as James's appeared to be "Relax James. Worrying yourself won't do much more than just worry Lily when you head in there. They're both going to be fine and we'll soon be greeting our strong baby boys together."

The Potter heir nodded, running a hand through his mop of hair "You're right, you're right. I mean, of course I shouldn't be too worried. Well about her anyway. I'm more worried about You-Know-Who showing up…" he muttered, glancing around as though even mentioning the name would somehow call the 'man' forth.

Unbeknownst to both of the men, a rather nondescript figure was sitting in the corner of the ward, currently hidden behind a Daily Prophet with a certain dark tattoo on his left arm. For whatever reason, His Lord had ordered some of his followers to report any births towards the end of July. Tonight was his shift and it looked like Auror Longbottom and Heir Potter would soon fit the bill.

After a small wait that seemed to stretch into months or years, a nurse poked her head out, smiling at Frank and calling him back, leaving James to get even more antsy. It wasn't for another hour or so, after the clock had already sounded midnight that he was finally called back as well. And as the seventh month died, born to the world were Neville Franklin Longbottom and Harry James Potter.

Wednesday, October 1, 1980:

"Happy Fourth Birthday, Leo!" a few voices called out. The party wasn't much bigger than his third had been, only including Sirius as opposed to just close family. The attacks of the Death Eaters had seemed to increase in ferocity since the summer. They were bolder, attacking 'blood traitor's' homes, causing structural damage around Diagon Alley, and even Voldemort himself had started to make more appearances. Because of all this, they had decided that a party behind their home's wards would be for the best.

Arcturus had sent an in-depth book on different snake species which the four-year-old enjoyed greatly. Sirius had gotten him a toy broom which had caused Andi to groan "I swear, if you make my boy as big a Quidditch fanatic as you and Potter…" causing the others to laugh.

James and Lily sent their best wishes with Sirius but ever since they had gone to ground they hadn't been able to do much more than focus on themselves.

He had also gotten some robes in his size, a couple of children books, and a toy wand that could light up different colors when a bit of magic was put into it and the name of the color was called out.

In an attempt to not jinx themselves into something even crazier happening, Andi and Ted had decided to let Leo try and transform both of his arms at once, with Sirius watching closely. The young boy scrunched up his face and slowly his arms started to become covered in a blond fur, his hands shortening and his fingers curling up, turning into paw, claws slowly poking out of them. His eyes blinked open and he grinned widely curling his arms up and looking at them. Sirius let out a proud whoop, while his parents had matching proud smiles and his older sister reached over ruffling his hair with a grin, resulting in him sticking his tongue out at her. It took a few seconds, but he returned his limbs to normal and shook them out, smiling proudly.

Monday, November 17, 1980:

It wasn't often that the Tonks-Blacks left their home. However, Andromeda had made a special excuse to travel East to a house known as the Burrow, home to the Weasley family. She had taken Leo and Dora along with her to help keep the Weasley's now six boys occupied while she, a six month pregnant Pandora Lovegood, and Miranda Diggory, a mother of a boy a year younger than Leo who also joined the posse of redheads and Blacks, met with Molly Weasley to console her over the loss of her brothers Fabian and Gideon. There had been a major fight in Hogsmeade where Voldemort himself had arrived, a couple of his followers taking out the twins while he took down Dorcas Meadowes, the three working with the rest of the Order and eventually the aurors to defend students out on a Hogsmeade weekend.

The ten-year-old Bill who would be headed off to Hogwarts the next year was the de facto leader of the bunch even though the seven-year-old Tonks put up a stink about it. Her fellow seven-year-old, Charlie was too busy riding around on one of the family's old brooms, entrancing the rest of the younger boys except for Percy who was content to read while sitting under one of the family apple trees.

Tuesday, April 14, 1981:

Lily wept quietly while James held her in his arms and rocked her gently. They had just received the news that the whole McKinnon family had been wiped out while Marlene was visiting her parents.

"We should be out there fighting" James growled out quietly, squeezing her gently.

"N-no!" Lily cried out shooting him a fierce glare through the bright green eyes she shared with her son. "I will not let you run out there and get yourself killed leaving me and Harry behind, James. Besides, Dumbledore clearly gave us this safe house for a reason. Shouldn't we trust him enough to stay in place?!"

James let out a long sigh but nodded holding her close. This had been an argument for quite some time. With every new message they received of another friend, classmate, or relative falling to the war, the tension grew stronger in Godric's Hollow. Both were clearly worked up but they were doing their best to stay calm with each other and especially in front of Harry.

Whenever he got the chance, Sirius and James would head down to the Muggle pub a fifteen minute walk from their little neighborhood. It wasn't much, but it gave him a bit of respite from the same few rooms in the small house he had to look at otherwise.

Outside of that, he had kept his battle transfiguration sharp, using the garage that housed no car to summon forth lions of concrete and wolves of wood to defend his family should the need ever arise. He had also kept in contact with Gringotts through guarded owl mail, keeping his and Lily's wills up to date and looking after some of his late father's assets. Hair potion might not have been selling great during the war times, but they were still getting a nice in flux that would see whatever Potter's survived the conflict sitting pretty for a good bit.

He had received the notification that his great uncle and aunt had been among the casualties but had yet to actually accept the Lordship title, knowing there wasn't much of a point during these times when he was stuck with not much to do.

Lily on the other hand had spent as much time as she could with Harry. She had occasionally flooed his godmother, Alice so that the two of them and her and Neville could at least see one another so they weren't entirely isolated. Outside of that, she had spent time locked up in her upstairs lab which had initially been a storage room, desperately looking into other ways that she could help keep her family safe.

With Professor Flitwick sending her the occasionally book from Hogwarts restricted section and Sirius having access to a portion of the Black library from Alphard's flat, she thought she might have come across something but it would be a Plan Z if Peter somehow gave up the secret, if Voldemort himself came to kill them, if they couldn't get away together, if James fell before she and Harry could get away and if she fell… well hopefully Lily could at least protect her son and keep him alive.

She made sure to stress in her will that should it come to that and Harry survived that he should not go to her sister's family. She knew that while Petunia would most likely at least make sure to take care of him, her tub of lard of a husband would see her son constantly berated if not worse for being born with magic.

He would go to the Longbottoms and he and Neville could truly be brothers, not just god brothers. If, Merlin forbid, something were to happen to them, he would go to Sirius and hopefully help mellow him out. Spending so much time with his cousin and her children had actually calmed down some of his more childish tendencies even if he was still a big kid at heart.

The Tonkses were actually the last specifically on their list of places Harry could go, followed by any Wizarding family willing to take him after full inspection of all members' left arms, and after that, an orphanage, wizarding or Muggle. Her sister would hopefully never have to meet her nephew.

September 28, 1981:

Today was the day. Leo would finally be attempting a full body transformation. He had worked really hard with Sirius and he felt like he could finally manage it. He really wanted to try and go for a full on lion, but Sirius and his parents had insisted that he aim for a house cat to start off with so if somehow his animal instincts took over, he wouldn't attack his own family.

He stood in the middle of the living room, his great something cousin, Lord Arcturus Black watching curiously, alongside his parents and Sirius. He felt slightly nervous at all the focus on him but shut his eyes and concentrated.

He focussed in on the core that he was now fairly familiar with, what he simply called his inner cat. He had a similar feeling core next to it that he figured was probably his inner snake and then all around them was his magic itself.

He slowly let his inner cat spread out into his magic stream, shutting his eyes and letting it build out, slowly flowing through his whole body. It had once been hard to try and push the cores against one another, like trying to paddle upstream, but now he could manage it a good bit easier. With one last deep breath and his inner cat firmly entrenched in his magic, he focussed on the form of a domestic cat, felis catus, specifically an American shorthair.

With a pulse he felt his body start to shrink down on itself a few times over, fur sprouting out from him as he slowly dropped down to all fours, his arms and legs curling in as something pushed itself from his lower back and his clothes receded into himself. His eyes blinked open, and he glanced around at his suddenly much larger family, taking them in and breathing in deep, a bit overwhelmed by all the new scents.

Dora let out a loud "Awww" as she and the others looked down at the young black-furred shorthair cat with bright green eyes, looking around at them curiously. Sirius let out a loud whoop, leaping slightly which caused the cat to jerk back in fear a bit, causing the young man to blush.

Andromeda slowly approached the cat and crouched down reaching out to pet him with a big smile "Oh that's just wonderful Leo. Now then, let's see about turning back, alright?"

The cat gave a very human-like nod and she backed away as it started to grow into her son once again. The transformation back was a bit slower and he was still crouched on all fours before shaking his head and popping back up with a beaming smile "I did it!"

October 31, 1981:

"Avada Kedavra!"

There ya go. Whole buncha stuff, lots of time skips, but I got to where I said I would! If you can't tell by those stellar sibling interactions between Leo and Tonks, I am very much an only child and have not been their ages for a good few years. Do I really know how it works? Not even a little. But hey at least I don't have eleven-year-olds completely rewriting how an entire government should work, taking over a school centuries old, or facing off against one of the strongest wizards ever... or something crazy like that. Do I know when or where we'll be going next? Noooope. But hey, Leo's a cat now and Voldie's dead! Kinda. Who else might be? Good question. Probably the usual people, but who knows? I don't yet!