"So…you're going to do what?"
"Turn into a cat and see if I can look through the window."
"And why?"
"To see if you were right about this being where Harry lives."
"And why can't I do it?"
"Because you're too big to fit on a windowsill and you're terrifying. You look like the Grim."
Sirius sighed as they hunched in the bushes, whispering out of habit despite the Silencing Charm around them. "It's not going to work."
"I refuse to have this negativity within my eyesight." Elena flicked her a hand towards him, grinning, making her voice lofty. "Remove yourself at once."
Sirius rolled his eyes and transformed, and Elena did too, stalking out of the bushes towards number 4 Privet Drive. It was dark, so Elena thanked her feline increased eyesight as she climbed up onto the fence and peered into the brightness of the window. The living room was empty, so Elena jumped lightly onto the roof and padded along the first windowsill on the left.
A scrawny boy with spiky black hair was standing by his wardrobe, stroking the snowy owl perched in a cage that was balanced precariously on top of the uneven, wobbly shelf. Watching him intently, Elena was relying on her inhuman balance to keep her on the ledge, but when he slammed the wardrobe door shut, she jumped, yowling, and bumped into the window. Harry Potter jumped, whirling towards the window and lunging for his bedside table where his wand was sat, ready, and then relaxed as he saw the ginger cat clinging onto the sill desperately, hissing and clawing the air with her back legs. Fearing she was going to fall, Elena let out a pained miaow, and Harry rushed over to the window, compassion obviously getting the better of him as it often did, opening it up and patting the bed, as if to say 'Come in, then'. Gratefully, Elena scrambled up and onto the bed.
"What kind of rubbish cat are you?" Elena hissed, batting at him, and he frowned.
"Did you…I must be…urghh…" Harry sat down next to her on the bed, stroking her. "You're an awful cat, honestly. What kind of cat can't walk along a windowsill?"
Elena hissed again, and he looked down at her, surprised. "Can you…can you understand me?"
Deliberating, Elena took a second and then rubbed her head up against his knee, purring.
Harry stood up, looking freaked out. "What, are you like some magical cat or something?"
Elena padded across his bed, sinking into the duvet, and batted at his wand. The boy snatched it up protectively, and looked at her distrustfully. "You better not be a Death Eater coming to kill me or something. Being killed by a cat would be an awful way to die." Elena laughed, which sounded a bit like her trying to cough out a hairball, and cocked her head as she hurt angry yells from downstairs.
"You need to go," Harry ushered her towards the window, pointing out into the night. "You have to go, quickly!"
Elena tried to stall, but Harry practically pushed her out onto the windowsill and shut the window.
Sirius was waiting for her next to the fence, and let out a barking laugh. Annoyed, Elena stormed back to the bushes and transformed.
"You…you fell off the windowsill…are you even a cat?"
"It is a lot harder than it looks and I don't think you realise that. "
"You fell…off…the windowsill…"
"I also met your godson, but you're too busy laughing at me to hear about that-"
"You saw him? What happened?"
"He let me in the window, and he worked out that I could understand him, and he was talking to me, and then someone shouted and he basically threw me out-"
"But is he okay?"
"I mean, I don't know, I was only in there for like a minute…the person downstairs sounded angry, but that might be irrelevant, it might not have been at him, or…"
"It probably was directed at him, Vernon's a dick and Petunia was always a bitch to Lily, called her a freak. I doubt they're all sweetness and light to Harry. Damn it."
"I'll go back later?"
Sirius looked so disheartened and angry, Elena looked at him sadly. "I'll leave you alone for a bit. Keep the wand."
Transforming, Elena went for a walk down the road, wanting to hunt, her small feline body buoyed by the warmth of the evening, breeze ruffling her fur.
-
The next morning, Elena woke as a cat, curled into the leaves. The sun was shining high in the sky, and the road was filled with the sounds of the gleaming car from number 4 revving up and speeding off down the road. Sirius was awake next to her, canine snout poked out and ears pricking up as the vehicle raced past them and turned the corner. After a quick discussion, Elena set off as a cat to check on Harry while Sirius' dog went off to hunt. A bit more practiced in climbing up onto the fence, Elena waited until the snowy owl and a brown owl had flown out of the window and then ran quickly along the fence, off-kilter, and leapt onto the windowsill. Harry was kneeling on the floor, piling cards into a gap in the floorboards. Elena scratched at the window, miaowing loudly, and Harry looked up, startled, then crossed to the window and opened it, moving out of the way so that Elena could leap lightly in.
"Hullo again."
Harry sat down on the bed, and Elena arched her back under his hand, wanting to be stroked.
"Guess what? My Aunt Marge is coming. She's horrible. Last time she came, she got her dog to chase me up a tree, and didn't let me down for hours."
Elena purred sympathetically, and Harry sighed. "I've got to pretend I go to some St Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys or some shit. It's ridiculous."
There was a shrill shriek from downstairs. "Get down here and welcome the guest!"
Harry jumped, and stood quickly, yanking his hand away from the cat as if burned.
"That's my aunt. You should go."
Elena ignored his insistence, jumping off the bed and going to follow him down the stairs. He looked desperate, shooing her away. "Go! Shoo!"
Elena meowed, frustrated, turned and jumped up onto his bed, curling up on his pillow.
"Boy!"
"Oh…damn it…" Harry looked torn between getting rid of the cat and going downstairs to obey his aunt, then swore under his breath, jogged out and shut the door behind him softly.
A week passed quickly. Elena and Sirius, though they wouldn't admit it, were both disgruntled, tired and hungry. The original thrill of discovering Harry's whereabouts had faded, leaving Sirius filled with a harsh bitterness and deep-rooted anger that he couldn't see his godson. He snuck quick peeks through the window when he could risk it, of course, but it wasn't enough to quell his frustration, so he took it out on Elena with mocking sneers and snaps. His short temper was grating on Elena's already frazzled nerves, so she sought solace in taking long walks, picking up on everything around her and grateful for her Animagus' improved senses.
From what Elena had seen and heard of this 'Aunt Marge', she was a bitch. Simple as.
Harry had stormed up the stairs grumbling for the past few days, ranting out his problems as he stroked the cat with a little more force than necessary.
"-and then, she called my dad a-"
"Boy! Get down here and help your aunt do the table!"
"Oh for fu-"
"Now!"
"Can't you just piss off back to your bloody dogs?" Harry jumped angrily to his feet and stomped down the stairs, his footsteps shaking the house. A fit of yelling ensued downstairs, and Elena did something she hadn't down before then; she padded out, slipped through the gap in the door and stopped in the middle of the landing. The best she could make out between the smacks of the awful woman's handbag on something (hopefully not a person) was that they were having a special dinner to rejoice over the fact that the fat cow was leaving. Or something like that.
The forceful clattering of the cutlery and the loud rattling slam every time someone shut the drawers suggested it was Harry setting the table, and Elena was so busy straining her ears to hear what he was mumbling as he did so that she didn't notice the blonde boy at the bottom of the stairs until he gasped. "Mummy, Mummy, there's a cat!"
Elena swore mentally and retreated, taking a few steps back. The booming voice Elena presumed to belong to Aunt Marge rang through the house.
"Don't worry, Duddy-poo, I'll set Ripper on 'em!"
Elena's fur stood on end, but she couldn't smell any dogs, or any other animals in the vicinity.
"Vernon took Ripper for a walk, Marge."
"Course. You're right Petunia. Where is it, Duddy?"
"On the landing!"
Jumping back, Elena skittered across the carpet, slid into Harry's room, up onto his bed and then scrambled out of the window, onto the fence, then leapt onto the bins and down to the pavement.
A large man with little neck and a rather spectacular moustache was straining to contain a massive, slobbering bulldog that was pulling impressively at its lead as they approached the front door. On seeing Elena, the dog let out a loud series of barks, rushing forwards only to be pulled back by his chain. The man gave an exasperated huff and kicked at Elena irritably.
"Oi! Get out of it!"
Hissing at the man and the furiously barking dog, Elena crept slowly backwards into the shadows behind the bins. There was no sign of Sirius in the evening sunshine, and although she could smell him his scent was far away, fading, like spilt water in the midday August heat. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, Elena missed Sirius' company. He may have been a pain in the arse, but he was a funny pain in the arse. Now that he had secluded himself she felt even more alone that she had felt stuck in that freezing, soaked cell in Azkaban, if it were possible. Night brought sleep, and sleep brought nightmares, and while Sirius slept for as long as he could to try to desperately to cling onto any moments with his friends that his dreams would bring, Elena preferred to sleep in fits, sporadically, for half hours at a time, in order to try and escape the image of her boyfriend's blood seeping out of his head and onto the floor. Exploring the rather boring street gave her something to do, and if she could catch a few rats while she was at it, then Elena would consider pacing up and down past the houses as more productive than doing what Sirius was doing, which was essentially moping.
They had nowhere to go, no plan on the horizon, and it sucked.
The air above the road shimmered in the heat. It was August, Elena had deduced, from the sound of the morning news drifting in through the neighbour's open window, and just too hot for it to be entirely comfortable. Teenagers roamed the street in packs usually at around this time of the evening, dressed up to the nines, sweating in their leather jackets and wobbling in their kitten heels, looking almost alien on the prim and proper street with its perfectly mown lawns and polished cars, but tonight the road was empty. The sheer absence of signs of life and the only sounds being the wind rustling through the pruned hedges made Elena nervous, twitchy. There was something in the air, something crackly and potential, electric. Something was going to happen, but she didn't know what.
The loud rumble of the pot-bellied man opposite number four taking out his wheelie bins made Elena jump, and skulk under the Dursley's car in search of shade and refuge from the icy glare he was directing towards the stray. Annoyed, Elena set off in search of Sirius.
Elena finally caught up with him at the edge of the park, sniffing at some old fish and chip wrappers. She nudged him in the side once, then harder when he didn't respond. He turned begrudgingly and followed her back to their enchanted bush, which by now was getting sort of boring. When he transformed, it was with an air of tiredness that he masked with a scowl.
"What?"
"Something's wrong."
"What?"
"Can't you feel it?"
"Feel what? Sorry I'm not all weird and prophetic as you-"
"Sirius, shut up."
"Make me."
He transformed, and she grabbed him by the tail, yanking him back towards her. Spinning, he snapped at her hand, and she gasped as his teeth broke the skin, pinpricks of blood blossoming on her wrist.
Jay's scream, his body flopping onto the floor, the crimson blood staining the carpet
carpet
blood
Sirius
Elena yanked her hand into her chest, breathing quickening as she smothered the wound in her t-shirt, wrapping it up so she couldn't see it anymore, so she couldn't see the red as dark as her old favourite lipstick-
"Oh grow the hell up, it was just a nip-"
Elena punched Sirius full in the face with her injured hand.
"Shit, woman, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Just…stay away from me, okay?! Stay away."
Elena transformed, shaken and confused and angry and panicking, and lifted up her paw, yelping as the cut touched the pavement, then gingerly limped off out of the bush.
This was a lot longer update than I usually post, so I hope you like it?!
Please leave a review letting me know what you thought!
Fly xx