Chapter Thirty-Two

A/N: I do not own anything other than the plot! All characters belong to either JK Rowling or Disney!

*Ducks* Okay, I am so sorry that this was delayed for so long! Unfortunately, real life plus writer's block equaled a long time before this chapter would come into being. Also, the feeling of frustration that we're still in Third Year did not help any concerning writing.

I'm going to try to keep to a once a month update schedule, but I can't make any promises.

I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please feel free to leave a review!

Sirius stared at Simba for what had to be a good five minutes. Honestly, Simba was getting uncomfortable. Why wasn't he saying anything?

"Well there's a new one," Sirius sighed, finally speaking and breaking the silence, much to Simba's relief. "Do I want to know why you want me to help you master the reverse animagus transformation?"

"Probably not," Simba told him with a shrug.

"Do I want to know why you're not going to McGonagall with help on this?"

"Again, probably not," Simba answered, though he began to question why he immediately went to the escaped mass murderer instead of the one professor that he knew was an animagus. Could he still blame lack of sleep or had he played that card too many times?

Sirius sighed once more and ran a hand through his hair. "Simba, I don't even know the reverse animagus transformation. If we try it the way I learned the animagus transformation and you get hurt, I don't want you getting in trouble for keeping me hidden."

"You're implying that a: I will get hurt, b: that it won't work and c: that we'll get caught," Simba said, sitting down and getting slightly irritated that Sirius wasn't immediately jumping on this with him. Simba was keeping him a secret from the professors at Hogwarts; the least the man could do would be to teach him how to master the reverse animagus transformation.

"Okay, I'm not going to win this one am I?" Sirius asked.

"Nope," Simba shook his head and couldn't help but smirk. "Come on! I'm not going to hand you over to the professors if something goes wrong. I'm around the twins so much; they'll probably just assume it had something to do with them."

Sirius barked out a laugh at that. "Spoken like a true prankster. Always have an established alibi in cases such as these. Alright, Simba. Let's give this a try."

Simba grinned as Sirius got up off the forest floor. He knew it was stupid to try to avoid Fred this way but honestly, Simba didn't care. He knew that Fred would probably confront him again or George would try to figure out what was wrong. Simba knew that Harry would probably try to get him to confess why he was avoiding the twins.

He did not care.

Simba was not going to be around someone who could turn into a hyena. Even if that meant Simba was never going to be around Fred again, he would hold to that promise. Even if that meant that he would never be around one of his best friends.

"Okay," Sirius said, clapping his hands as he broke Simba out of his thoughts. "The first step to the animagus transformation is to focus-organize your mind so that you can see the creature you want to turn into, the one that was revealed to you when you took the potion. In your case, it would be a human."

"You're sure?" Simba asked as he laid down on the forest floor. The last thing he wanted was for something to go wrong because Sirius was unsure due to Dementor related memory problems.

"I'm sure," Sirius told him. "It's coming back to me now-almost like riding a broom."

"I wouldn't know what that's like," Simba told him and Sirius looked almost affronted by the notion. However, the older man did not comment on it, something Simba was pretty thankful for as the forest floor was starting to become somewhat uncomfortable.

"Close your eyes," Sirius said, his tone becoming deep and serene. "Picture the image that the animagus potion showed you."

Simba closed his eyes and tried to picture the person he would be transforming into if this worked. He tried to clear his mind of everything else, but all he could see was Fred transforming into a Hyena. Simba's eyes burst open in panic.

"Did it work?" he asked, hoping that at least part of his body would have changed.

"That depends," Sirius stated. "Was the image that the reverse animagus potion showed you a slightly sleep deprived thirteen-year-old lion?"

"No, why would it?" Simba asked, turning toward him. "I'm already a lion."

Sirius shot Simba a look of half amazement and half are-you-kidding-me. "Simba, you do know that was sarcasm right?"

"Oh," Simba looked down. "Well, I'll get it next time!"

"Problem is, unless you can keep your mind focused on the image the potion showed you, you won't be able to transform," Sirius said with a frown. "It might be better to talk to someone about whatever's bothering you."

"That would go over well," Simba muttered under his breath. No one wouldn't freak out in some way if Simba told them that Fred was going to be a Hyena animagus. Merlin, even Harry would probably freak in some way. The only one who probably would stay calm would be Sirius-and Simba had already spilled his guts once to the man. There had to be some quota for the number of times you could spill your guts to someone.

"It's late," Sirius said, looking up at the darkening sky. "You might want to think about getting inside."

"Yeah," Simba sighed, looking back down at his paws. He knew that he wouldn't get it down the first time though it still stung that he had let his mind wander like that.

"If it makes you feel any better, the first time James did the transformation he got so distracted he had antlers coming out of his head for four hours before he could change back," Sirius told him causing Simba to look back up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really," Sirius nodded, a small smile gracing his face. "I'm sure McGonagall probably has a story like that too. Becoming an animagus is hard-it's why there have only been seven in the past century who have registered. Ten if you count Wormtail, James and me."

Simba chuckled at that. "Can I come back out in a couple of weeks to work on it?"

"Get some rest first," Sirius said. "Starting the animagus transformation is draining the first few tries-even if nothing happens, you still feel drained of all your energy."

Yeah, I don't need help with that, Simba thought while trying to suppress a yawn. One look from Sirius though proved that he was unsuccessful in his endeavors.

"Go on," Sirius said, gently shoving Simba toward the castle. "Get some rest. Work on whatever's bothering you. There's no contest to getting this down."

"Thanks, Sirius," Simba said, shooting the older man a small smile. He ran out of the forest, frowning slightly as he noticed that it was now dusk. How much time had he spent in the forest? More importantly, who would be waiting for him as he entered the castle?

00000

Simba sighed in relief as he entered the Gryffindor Common Room to see it completely deserted. Though that moment of relief soon turned into a moment of dread. Only one thing could clear out the Common Room, and Simba was not in the mood to deal with a dung bomb right now.

Taking a tentative sniff, Simba found the air in the Common Room to be clean and not at all indicative that someone had set off one of those annoying dung bombs.

"Hello?" he called out softly, not sure as to why. All he knew was that, at this point, the fun-loving Gryffindor House had their Common Room completely empty and Simba did not know why.

"Simba?" a feminine voice came from behind him. Simba whirled around to see Ginny curled up in a chair by the window, clutching a small red book.

"Ginny!" Simba sighed in relief. "I saw the Common Room empty and thought-"

"They've all gone to bed," Ginny said with a small smile. "I volunteered to wait up for you after Harry realized you hadn't come up from your confrontation with Fred."

"Oh," Simba said, trying to crush the dueling feeling of guilt for making Harry and Ginny worry while at the same time feeling a little bitter that Harry did not wait up himself.

"He would have waited for you himself if Wood wasn't insistent that the whole team be well rested for the Quidditch Cup," Ginny added, probably seeing the feelings evident on Simba's face. "The match is tomorrow you know."

"Yeah, I know," Simba chuckled. "I saw them practicing earlier today. We've got a good chance against Slytherin."

Ginny made to comment when a massive yawn seemed to shake her entire body. She tried to hide it behind her hand, but Simba was able to see it.

"Come on," he said with a chuckle. "Let's head up. We wouldn't want to sleep through the match, would we?"

"I don't think Harry would let us," Ginny told him with a small smile. She set the book on the table and got up to stand next to him. Simba moved to go up to the boy's dorm, but Ginny surprised him when she wrapped her arms around him.

"Ginny?" he asked. Simba was used to hugs, heck Harry used to give him hugs all the time back when they lived in the Oasis, but Harry was the only human to do so.

"I'm not going to ask about the fight you've got going on with Fred," she said, her voice slightly muffled by Simba's mane. "But you just looked like you needed a hug. I know there were parts last year that I wished someone would realize what was going on and hug me."

Simba shot her a small smile. Even if he wasn't wild about the idea of telling her as to why he was so bent out of shape this year, the fact that she was willing to give him a hug no questions asked meant a lot.

"Thanks, Ginny," Simba told her and then turned his head so that he didn't yawn right in her face. "I'm going to head up to bed."

"I'm going to head up too," Ginny said, standing up out of the squatting position she had been in. "It won't be long before Percy comes down here to see if everyone's gone to bed. I'd rather avoid a lecture from him if I can help it."

Chuckling at that, the two of them made their way up the stairs. As Simba slipped through the door of the boy's dorm, he hopped onto the end of Harry's bed. He didn't even notice how his body seemed to relax or how his eyes seemed to shut without prompting. His problems could wait until tomorrow-it appeared as though he finally was going to get a natural night's sleep for the first time in months.