"So you reckon she's a witch?" Elena and Sirius were crouched behind a hedge, stomachs full from their hunting earlier. Yes, the thought of eating rats made her feel sick, but as a cat Elena could only feel her hunger, and had relished the food filling her achy stomach. Now she was rejuvenated, high on the thrill of their potential theft, and lost in the whirring of her mind as she calculated the best way to enter the house.
"I don't just reckon, Munroe, I saw her levitating her slippers earlier."
"Fair enough. Now, how do we get in?"
"Just try sneaking in?"
"Nah, she'd probably see us. She may be old, but she's not blind."
"Alright, it was just an idea. What've you got, Miss Mistress of Plans?"
"You could distract her, and I'll sneak in."
"Why couldn't you distract her and I sneak in?"
"You're not exactly stealthy, mate."
"Excuse me-"
"Ooh, shit on her lawn!"
"What?"
"Shit on her lawn and bark really loudly. Make a load of noise. When she comes out, I'll go in and grab her wand!"
"Why do I have to shit on her lawn?"
"Because I nearly died early. Go."
"I saved you!"
"Technicalities!"
Giggling, Elena waited until they had both transformed and then skulked off to lie on the top of the fence as Sirius stopped outside the house, grumbling and growling and did as she'd proposed.
The ruckus he caused sent the elderly woman to her door with a few angry French words and her cane ready in hand. As she stepped out, brandishing her cane and shouting, Elena slipped through the crack in the front door and scampered lightly into the living room, where the wand lay on the sofa, obviously thrown aside hurriedly after Sirius had created a scene. Picking it up in her mouth and struggling to keep a grip on it, Elena snuck out of the house and escaped behind the hedge.

The woman was still shouting angrily at Sirius who ran off with a pained whine, and then followed Elena slowly on the ten minute walk back to their cave. When they reached it, Sirius transformed, wincing as he rubbed his ribs. "She hit me with her cane!"
"Never mind that, I got the wand!"
"I think they're broken," Sirius moaned, stretching out, and Elena rolled her eyes, weighing the wand in her hand.
"This feels pretty good. A bit heavier than my old one, but it's not too different."
"Maybe I could one of those sheets as bandages…"
Elena held out the wand, and spoke loudly and clearly. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The rock she was pointing at rose a few feet in the air, and Elena smiled incredulously, laughing a little. "Hey, it worked! Isn't that great?"
"My turn!" Sirius lunged and snatched it off her, and she swatted at him, fighting to get it back. Elena didn't realise that she'd transformed until the big black dog that was starting to become a welcome sight tackled her to the ground. She pawed at his face and clawed at his side, and they rolled around the cave, snarling at each other and diving for the wand, shoving each other out of the way as they fought for it.
"It's…mine…" Elena shifted form again and elbowed the massive dog out of the way.
"You…made…me…crap…on…a…lady's…lawn!" Sirius wrestled the wand off of her, pushed himself to his feet and held the stolen wand above his head, out of her reach.
"That's not fair!" Elena jumped to try and reach it, but he waved it tantalisingly too high for her short stature, so she jabbed him in his bruised ribs so he doubled over then snatched the wand and laughed happily, victoriously. "Aha! I win! Now, heal the cut on my back, Black!"
"Okay boss." He took the wand off her and traced it along the cut above her shoulder blades: Elena shuddered as the skin knitted together a little roughly, making it itchy and sore but no longer bleeding or as painful. "That alright?"
"Yeah thanks."
Elena reached around to touch the fresh skin on her back and whipped the wand out of his hand.
"Are we going to Apparate to London, or Hogwarts, or wherever you need to go?"
"It'll have to be in small jumps, though, and Side-Along."
"And? Let's go then!"
"Okay…" Sirius stood there, frowning impatiently, as Elena wrapped her fingers more securely around the wand, gripped his arm tightly and squeezed. The familiar but horrible, sucking feeling Apparation filled her senses as they appeared in a deserted street behind some wheelie bins: Elena's old street. Her house had been number five.
Coughing and retching, the pair fought the urge to vomit as their bodies adjusted to Apparating again, and then Elena handed the wand to Sirius.
"Urgh…You know where you want to go, I take it?"
"Yeah, but we should probably not jump too often. There's two of us and it's not even one of our wands."
"Okay then, what do you want to do?"
"Where are we?"
"My old street. My house is up there."
"Will there be someone else living there now?"
"I doubt it. No one wants to live there, since…since the murder."
"Right."
They transformed and padded across the road. Number Five had an overgrown front garden, and the front door was hanging off its hinges. Elena slipped in, and Sirius followed her, gazing curiously around with his sharp canine interest, cocking his head at the graffiti on the walls, left by daring vandals, she guessed. Once pristine, clean and perfect, the sight of her old house in disrepair and derelict conditions made Elena angry, but also full of regret.
If only she'd called the police, or the Ministry, or anyone-
The carriage clock on the windowsill was smashed, probably with a rock, but it still ticked haphazardly, every so often coughing out a weak click, wheezing and broken. In a move that looked almost simultaneous, the pair shifted form, and Sirius waved the wand in a long arc, murmuring under his breath. "Salvio Hexia. Protego Maxima. Protego Horribilis. Repello Muggletum. Repello Inimicum."
"What are you doing?"
Elena watched as light blue mist erupted from the tip of the wand and settled around the outside of the house, shimmering, and then faded.
"Protective enchantments. Muggle-Repelling Charms, stuff like that. They won't be able to track us or the wand to here."
"Awesome." Elena nodded gratefully at him, and he jerked his head towards the stairs.
"Can I go up? There still might be some useful stuff up there."
"Yeah, sure. I'm pretty sure I left some tins in the kitchen in case of an emergency, so I'll go see if I can find them."
"Cool."
They parted ways, Elena's head flashing full of painful memories as she walked into the kitchen and opened the bottom cupboard under the oven. It was empty, as she'd expected, but the false bottom she'd installed years ago was intact, and when she pulled it out there were stacks full of tins in there. Pulling them all out, Elena checked the best before dates on the base, and then, satisfied, separated them into sweet and savoury tins, glad to have a task to perform. In all there were seventeen cans: two with tinned potatoes, four with tomato soup, five with chicken soup, one with baked beans (that made Elena gag), two with tinned pineapple and the last three with tinned peaches. It was a pretty good haul, and Elena estimated they'd have, best case scenario having on meal a day plus hunting as their Animagi, just over a week's worth of food. However now they had a wand they could duplicate the tins and their contents, so it could last them a lot longer than that.
"Hey, Munroe!" Sirius shouted down from upstairs, and Elena stood up, a tin in each hand.
"What?""
"There are a load of clothes and a mattress and a bunch of stuff up here!"
"I've got enough tins to last us maybe a week as well."
"Good call, coming here, then."
Sirius jogged down the stairs, clothes over his arm, and chucked some at her.
"Here, this were in the wardrobe. I'm guessing they're yours?"
"Yeah, thanks. Ooh, I'm going to go have a bath!"
Sirius chucked her the wand and she caught it, running up the stairs, straight across the landing and past the ajar bedroom door because if she was going to have one rule while staying in her old house it was that she was not going into that bedroom.
The bath was full with steaming water in no time thanks to magic, and Elena locked the door, laid her old clothes out on the floor and slid into the beautifully warm water, sighing. Never had she been so grateful for having a bath in her life. She washed her hair with the wand and cleaned her body, hating how skinny she looked but loving the feeling of being clean for the first time in months. Exhausted, Elena knew that if she stayed in the intoxicating warmth of the bath anymore she'd fall asleep, so reluctantly climbed out and wrapped herself in the too small, ripped towel that had been dangling from the wall like an odd species of spider.

After drying herself, Elena held out the dress Sirius had picked for, and smiled. It hung loosely on her arms and around her bosom, too big and billowy, but when she pulled the strings at the back as tight as they could go it nearly fit, which was good enough for her. Rubbing her hair with the towel in a pathetic attempt to dry it, she braided it back into a long plait that brushed her waist and sighed at herself in the mirror.
Sirius was scraping, literally scraping, the dust off of the old sofa, which had obviously also been vandalised, with holes in its cloth exterior and a spring poking out at one end.
"Need a hand?"
Elena held up the wand, laughing, and he nodded, but his eyes were on her in the dress.
"You look alright, Munroe!"
"Thanks Black. The bath's still full if you want one? I cleaned the water."
"Nah, I'll have one tomorrow."
"You're very welcome." Elena mumbled, and Sirius grinned unapologetically.
"Thanks."
Sirius flopped down on the sofa, and Elena ran to get the cans from the kitchen.
"What d'you want? Cold chicken soup, cold tomato soup, peaches…?"
"I'll have the chilled tomato soup, madam."
"Of course, sir."
Smiling, she passed it to him, took a chicken soup for herself and cut a hole in the top of her can before passing the wand to Sirius so he could do the same. Despite the unfortunate temperature, it tasted great for someone who hadn't eaten anything apart from bread for months.

"I'm going to go to bed." Sirius finished off his soup and stood up. "You coming?"
"Did you just ask me to go to bed with you?"
"Well if that's what you want…"
Elena threw her empty can at his head, and he dodged, chortling, and went to go up the stairs, looking down at her. "You're not coming?"
"I don't like the bedroom."
"Alright then." He vanished up the stairs, his footsteps shaking the ceiling over her head, and then appeared a minute later, dragging the mattress behind him. With a mischievous smirk he threw it over the banister, and Elena shrieked as she jumped out of the way.
"You little sod!" Swatting at his head, Elena laid down on the mattress and curled up in the foetal position, trying to get comfortable.
"You're welcome, Elena."
"Oh shut up Black."

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