She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER SIX

Caught You

I awoke the next morning to find myself nearly in pain from hunger. I got up, stretched, and looked around me in dismay. What on earth was I going to do?

How was I going to transform?

Or was I going to have to go out and kill a rabbit or something?

I began walking, determined to hunt down and eat the very first edible thing I came across.

Well, after two hours of walking, the only thing I'd come across was a unicorn, and I was not going to kill and eat one of those, so I was back to square one again.

As a particularly spiky looking creature waddled across the path in front of me, I thought: What would Sirius do in this situation? And, in a flash, a brilliant idea came to me. Not necessarily what Sirius would do in this situation, but he'd given me the idea from book four.

Witch renewed hopes, fighting the constant aches in my stomach, I loped off in the direction of Hogsmeade.

***

No One's P.O.V:

"Love long weekends," James said briskly as he, Sirius, Remus and Peter walked with a large group of third-year-up students down the familiar path towards Hogsmeade. "They should have one of these every week, I think."

Remus and Peter laughed, but Sirius didn't. His eyes were downcast, his expression angry.

James knew straight away what was wrong. "Hey, Padfoot, stop worrying about that wolf – we'll get it, don't you worry."

Sirius muttered something incoherent as they arrived at Hogsmeade, and students began separating to go off and do their own thing.

As the four friends turned down a deserted side-street, on their way to the Three Broomsticks for drinks, Peter started to say something, but was cut off by Sirius, who'd just stopped without warning and his friends walked into him.

Sirius had gone very still, and his friends recognised the signs instantly. They followed his gaze, to where the white wolf was standing on the street, having gone rigid after spotting them too.

Sirius grinned. "Goin' in." He said softly.

***

Well, this just made my day complete, yes siree. First, I get yelled at and called a mangy wolf by most people I come across. One little witch, who looked about three years old, did pat me on the head and call me a: "Pwetty doggie." But her mother had caught sight of us and dragged her daughter away before she could share any of her pumpkin pastie with me.

So, I had decided to go back to the forests and see if I could find that walking pin-cushion again but, of course, the Marauders had shown up, and Sirius must've decided that he was going to give it his all today because, once we were running, he didn't appear to want to stop, even when we'd reached a meadow full of wildflowers that were three feet high and made it very hard for us to run.

I could hear his feet padding along the soft dirt and grass after me, and wondered vaguely what he'd had for breakfast that could give him so much energy. Probably sausages…and eggs…and crispy bacon…on toast…with pumpkin juice (whatever that tastes like)…and I was so distracted with these thoughts and my own, empty stomach, that suddenly I lost my balance and tripped.

And Sirius, who had been right behind me the whole time, pounced on me, transforming back into a human as he did, pointing his wand at me and saying something I couldn't quite hear.

Blue and white light flashed from his wand, and enveloped me and, suddenly, I found myself changing back into a human, after three days of running around as a wolf, unsure of how to phase back and faced with a million unsettling thoughts. But, suddenly, as I lay there in the flowers, I realised that I would have no difficulty in phasing either way now, not that I had gone through the entire cycle, from human to wolf and back to human again. Nope, no trouble at all, except…

I was lying on the ground, with Sirius Black on top of me, his wand pointed at me and his face alight with an expression I would have been unable to read if I'd been psychic.

Sirius' dark bluey-violet eyes light up. "Caught you." He said simply.

Yes, indeed he had.