"DRAGON!" Triss yelled jumping on the old man the minute She and James had entered the living room.
"Hello Triss! I missed you two," said Dragon hugging James as well.
"Yeah, we were a bit disappointed when you said we couldn't come home for Christmas," said James.
"Sorry about that. I had some stuff to deal with but I did get you something to toy with that I couldn't send to the school," said Dragon reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a leather satchel and pulled a small white crystal out of it.
"This is called a Sabetha crystal, it was invented in America to try and cure Werewolves. The crystal stores curses and the like but they never could figure out how to get a curse into the crystal. I figured you could find so use for it. Don't worry about running out the crystals multiply like rabbits," said Dragon chuckling a bit.
He tossed both James and Triss a satchel of the crystals. "Cool," said James looking more closely at the crystal. "Kat might like to join in on this project," said James looking a Triss.
"I know you're worried about her Shadow but if she needs you she will call," said Triss putting her hand on James shoulder.
"I doubt that. She was sorted into Gryffindor for a reason. Gryffindors have a lot of pride and are determined not to ask for help unless absolutely necessary. Even if she does need help she won't call for me unless it's a life or death situation," said James sighing.
"She'll be fine Shadow. Come on, we have unpacking to do," she said dragging him back to their rooms.
The first weeks of the summer went by fast. James had figured out how to store curses in the Sabetha crystal but had no idea how one could extract a werewolf curse long enough for the crystal to absorb it.
Kat had called him on the muggle phone and told him how here parents and brothers were going to France and she was getting to stay with her oldest brother Jack for the next two weeks. Jack was a 26-year-old wizard and was shunned by most of his family as well. James was relived that she was with some one like her.
Dray was vacationing in Greece with his parents for the rest of the summer so he was nothing to worry about. Triss was being as aggressive as ever in training and Dragon was rather impressed with her progress even though she had only beaten James a hand full of times.
At the current second James was in the library in his trunk reading up on Werewolves trying to figure out how to temporarily extract the curse long enough for the crystal to capture it. "Any luck yet Shadow?" asked Triss from the stairs.
"Not yet. I fully intend to get Kat over here to help. She is damn near as smart as I am and I know she has been wanting to hit my library forever," said James setting his book down.
"Well, her parents will be home tomorrow so why don't you pick her up then," said Triss.
"Planning on it," said James.
"You really shouldn't worry about her so much. She is perfectly capable of handling herself," said Triss walking up behind James and starting to rub his shoulders.
James relaxed into the kneading of his muscles. "I worry about you far more than I worry about her so there is no need to be jealous," said James playfully.
"I am NOT jealous. I just don't think there is any reason for you to fear for her well being," said Triss.
"You're probably right but you know from experience how protective I am of my friends and family. I would die for any one of you," said James sincerely.
Triss hugged him from behind and gave him a small peck on the cheek. "I know you would but it's not healthy to worry about everyone else so much. You're going to give yourself gray hairs before you turn 20," said Triss playfully.
"Not like anyone will see it," said James running a hand threw his normal long black hair.
"When are you going to go see your dad?" asked Triss changing the subject.
"Probably tomorrow. I might include him on this project as well. This will be one hell of a break through if I can find out how to extract the Werewolf curse," said James.
"Yeah, it would help a lot of people, that's for sure," said Triss continuing to rub James shoulders.
The next day James was up bright and early getting ready to go see Snape. He didn't say anything but everyone referring to Snape as his father was starting to get on his nerves. As far as he was concerned Alex still held that position, Snape had yet to do anything to earn the title and was rather lucky James was allowing him to try.
Are you ready to leave yet James? Jewel asked from her spot in front of the common room fireplace.
Yeah. Are you sure you want to go? I'm flying the whole way, said James picking Jewel up.
Someone has to keep you out of trouble don't they, said Jewel.
I take that as a yes, said James as she wrapped her self around his neck.
At that minute Triss walked into the room. "Are you leaving yet?" she asked.
"Yeah, I just want to grab my notes and the crystals and I should be ready to go," he said.
"Where is Dragon?" Triss asked.
"He had a meeting in America. He should be back late tonight or early tomorrow morning," said James walking back to his rooms. After grabbing his notebooks, the crystals, shrinking them and putting them in a small pouch that he could carry while flying.
He crossed the hall and knocked on Triss's door and let her know he was leaving. After saying bye to her he walked out side and transformed into a large black eagle. He made sure Jewel was secure, picked up his pouch and took flight.
A half hour later he arrived at Hogwarts as breakfast was ending. He flew into the Great Hall with a screech after making Jewel invisible. Had he been human he would have doubled over laughing as all the adults at the table jumped, while Sara and Holly giggled.
It looked like only the Potters, Snape and Dumbledore had stayed at the school for the summer. With a second screech he landed lightly on Snape's shoulder. Snape looked at the large bird with a bit of confusion until he saw the eagle's bright green eyes.
"Who would that be Severus?" asked Dumbledore.
"An old friend," said Snape petting the eagle's dark feathers. James nuzzled Snape's hand thoroughly enjoying the rub. He looked over when he heard the twins giggle once more. With a flap of his mighty wings he was perched on the twins bassinette.
Evans jumped up afraid that the bird of prey would hurt on of her daughters but stopped when the bird nuzzled the girls as he had Snape's hand. Evans still looked a bit uneasy but sat back down.
Snape chose that moment to leave the table and James flew over to his shoulder. Snape walked deep into the dungeon where his rooms were located with James perched on his shoulder. When they entered James flew down to the floor and transformed.
"Since when were you an Animagi?" asked Snape.
"I'm not," said James taking the invisibility spell of Jewel.
"What do you mean you're not? I just saw you transform from a black eagle and into a human. That is called being an Animagi," said Snape slightly annoyed.
"No, Potter is an Animagi. I am a Shapeshifter, big difference," said James.
Snape's jaw became dangerously close to hitting the floor. "Exactly how many abilities do you have?" he asked incredulity.
"Eight, not including some of the languages I speak," said James.
"What are they?" Snape asked curiously.
"I'm a Shapeshifter, Elemental, Advanced healer, Transporter, Will wizard, Telepath, Aura reader, and Parseltongue," said James counting them off on his fingers.
"Wow," was all that left Snape's mouth.
"Well, on to business," said James.
"Business?" asked Snape.
"Yeah, I thought you would like to help me with a project," said James pulling out his bag of Sabetha crystals. "This is called a Sabetha crystal. It was developed as a way of curing Werewolves. The only problem is no one knows how they work. So far I've figured out how to store curses in them but nothing else," said James handing the white crystal to Snape.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could help but I had a bad experience with Werewolves. I don't want anything to do with them," said Snape handing the crystal back to James.
"I figured that. Well if there is nothing else I need to get back and make sure Triss isn't having a party. She is alone at the house at the moment," said James putting the crystal away.
"That's all for now. Come and visit again," said Snape as James ported away.
The following day James was once again up early getting ready to go get Kat. This time he could just apperate over as there were no wards on her house. "I'll be back in a bit," yelled James before disapperating.
He reappeared in a nicely decorated kitchen. Sitting at the table was none other than Kat. "Hey Kat!" said James happily.
Kat jumped at the sound of his voice. "Jimmy don't do that! You scared the crap out of me," said Kat.
James completely ignored her and told her to pack her stuff. "Why?" she asked.
"Because I have a research project I need your help with. It's just you and me working on it. I invited Professor Snape to work on it but he declined," said James.
Kat's eyes lit up at the thought of a project. She was out of the kitchen and in her room packing in an instant. James followed her closely. It took her all of 5 minutes to gather all of her stuff. "Hey Kat, let me see your wand," said James.
Kat reached up the sleeve of her sweatshirt and grabbed her ebony wand and tossed it to James. With a few well-chosen words the wand glowed red for a second. James threw it back to Kat.
"What did you do?" asked Kat examining her wand.
"Ollivander is an old friend of mine and taught me how to remove the ministry tracking charms. You can use your wand during the summer and not get in trouble now," James explained.
"Wow," said Kat.
"Go say goodbye to your parents and we can get going," said James.
Kat ran back down stairs with James following with her trunk. She walked into a room that looked like a den. In the middle were two teenage boys and two people that could only be Kat's parents. "Mom, dad, I'm going to go stay with a friend for the rest of the summer," she said before turning around and starting to walk out.
"Just a second young lady. You aren't going anywhere with anyone," said Mr. Granger standing from the sofa he was sitting on. James chose then to intervene.
"She will be staying with me and a few of my other friends for the rest of the summer Mr. Granger. It is a project so you have no say in the matter," said James.
"She is my daughter and I will say where and when she goes anywhere. If you don't leave right now she won't be returning to that school either," said a seething Mr. Granger.
'Time to try intimidation,' James thought. "Look sir, I know perfectly well what went on here last summer and the only thing keeping me from blasting you into tiny pieces is the fact that I don't want to get my clothes dirty. Now, I suggest you sit down and let Kat leave with me," said James throwing a Snapish glare at Mr. Granger.
"I am not stupid kid. I know that you aren't aloud to use magic during the holidays," Mr. Granger said smugly.
'This guy is really starting to piss me off,' James thought. He hit the trigger point for his claws and watched the stunned look on Mr. Granger's face. "I have no need for magic to tear you into little pieces. Also I nor Kat are restricted to use magic during the holidays anymore so I suggest you shut your trap," James said throwing a death glare at Mr. Granger.
Mr. Granger paled a few shades and stiffly sat down on the sofa. "Come on Kat," said James grabbing her hand and porting after retracting his claws. "Well, that was fun," commented James when the pair landed in his living room.
"You scared him shitless, Jimmy," said Kat.
"Runs in the famil-ahh," James grunted as he was tackled to the floor by Tigress. "Lovely greeting Tigress," said James sarcastically. Triss transformed back to his normal form and sat on James.
"What took you so damn long?" she asked.
James pushed her off and stood up. "I had to scare Kat's dad shitless before he would let her go," said James pointing at Kat.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Triss.
James turned and saw Kat's mouth hanging open. "What's wrong with you?" James asked.
"She is an Animagi?!?!" Kat half yelled half asked.
"Yeah, I kinda had to learn that with as much as James goes running," said Triss a bit confused.
"I think I neglected to tell you about that little detail," said James running a hand threw his hair again. "Would you like to learn as well?" he asked.
Kat's eyes lit up like light bulbs. "Of course I'd like to learn," she said excitedly.
"Alright, it's still early so we can probably start now," said James. 'I guess the crystals will have to wait,' he thought taking Kat's stuff to the guest room.
The next few weeks were uneventful. James had started to brew the Animagi potion while Triss went over how to shift forms with Kat. By the week before James's birthday Kat was able to transform into a beautiful golden falcon. "You know isn't it weird how all of our main forms are predators?" asked Triss.
"Not really. Why, would you rather be a vegetarian?" asked James playfully.
"Hell no. I like meat just as much as the next person. I was just stating that it is weird that we are all hunters and our group name is the Hunters," said Triss.
"We can't really say that yet. Dray hasn't learned to become an Animagi yet. For all we now he could be a rabbit," said Kat.
James burst out laughing at this. "Dray, a rabbit? No way, he'll probably be some kind of snake or bird of prey. In fact he would probably curse you for even suggesting that his form will be anything but honorable," said James doubling over with laughter again.
Finally it was the day they left for Hogwarts. James birthday had been fun with Dragon cooking up a storm while the trio relaxed. They had gotten their letters from Hogwarts and went shopping about a week later. Sadly they had bumped into Randle Black and his father while they were insulting the Weasley clan.
James had stepped in and put a stop to it and managed to bruise the Black's egos all in one sentence. The two Black's left shortly after. James had tried to go on with his day but Ron Weasley had decided he wanted to start a fight.
The fight was stopped by some blundering idiot named Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart was doing book signings in the bookstore and damn near turned Ron into a newt while trying to break the pair up. Mrs. Weasley took that time to pull her family out of the store, scolding Ron the whole way. Lockhart tried to scold James but shut up when James gave him 'the finger'.
Now the trio was getting ready to boarding the train to go back to school. Dray had already arrived and saved them a compartment. After packing their trunks away they all started to talk about their holidays.
Review responsesJordan: Thank you.
Wytil: That sucks. Where do you teach? My school is split into teams with in each grade so if you excel in one area and fail in another you get the help you need. One would think with all the writing I do I wouldn't be failing Language arts (Rolls eyes). I don't mean to insult teachers (My dad is one) but over half of mine are really and truly evil, especially the female ones. I have to make photocopies of my assignments now because my L.A. teacher keeps 'losing' my papers, only my papers no one else, hence the reason why I'm failing.
ER: No, at the moment Justin does not abuse her. Maybe later in the story.
Lady Silverstar2: Thank you.
Athenakitty: Yes, Dumbledore knew about Triss being abused and exactly how bad will be revealed later.
Gual1: Thank you. Hopefully some ideas will spark for year two because I'm running low. Nothing really starts to heat up till mid third year but year two should have its better moments.