Title: When James and Lily Bought a Dog

Characters: James Potter, Sirius Black and Lily Evans Potter.

Prompt: Animagus Training – Identifying Marks, Task #1: Write about a person being identified only with the help of a unique trait mark. (object) Crystal ball, (colour) blue and (word) tear. Minimum words 500, maximum 3 000.

AN: I am aware that Lily and James went into hiding in 1979 after Lily found out that she was pregnant with Harry. I have never read any statement saying that they never left their house and thus I am assuming that they did leave on occasion at least in the beginning if nothing else.

Word Count: 811

"I can't believe I lost Sirius." Lily Evans spoke to herself in a distressed tone of voice as she walked down the street with James Potter next to her. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a blue and white dress that accentuated her growing baby bump.

James pulled a hand through his already messy hair as he looked down on her with an amused smile. "I can't believe that you lost Sirius either."

He wiped away the last tear that fell down from his cheeks, not from crying out of sadness, from laughing.

Lily glared at him and though there was a certain fierceness in that look James laughed causing Lily to groan. "This is not a joking matter. I lost him. I lost your best friend in his animagus form and there is no way that I will be able to find him and he's never going to let me forget about this. He will remind me of the time when I lost him for the rest of my life…"

James managed to contain his laughter that time. "First of all, he's my brother and don't worry about not finding him. You have me now. I know him better than I know myself, practically."

"So, genius, where did he go?" Lily asked as she spun around and looked at the shops they saw.

The street was neither empty not overcrowded. The sun came out every now and again before hiding behind a group of clouds. There were a few people sitting inside a bakery. Occasionally they would look out and at the sky and Lily thought that she could see them say something about rain. There was a grocery store further down the street, some clothing shops, a library and a pub. James then laughed.

"He's in there." He gently turned Lily around and made her face a smaller building with pets written in big bold letters. Lily looked at him quizzingly. "Sirius has always had this idea that he can talk to dogs."

With that he took Lily's hand and they crossed the street to enter the building. The first thing they saw were a group of puppies surrounded by a big black dog whose tale wagged quickly when the puppies jumped around him. James' smile grew. It was hard to see who was happiest. Sirius or the puppies. Because there was no doubt in his mind that the grown dog was Sirius. He could see it in the stormy grey eyes that could belong to no other and the barely visible scar that travelled down his spine.

"Excuse me sir." James' voice caused the dogs ear to perk up and he looked at James. "It seems as if you have found our dog. We've looked for him everywhere, thank you so much for keeping him here."

The owner who leaned almost his entire body on the desk looked at James with a bored expression. A crystal ball stood just out of his reach with a layer of dust having settled around it which made it hard to see anything in its reflection. The owner was an almost entirely bald man with small eyes, a big nose, thin lips and he looked like he was trying very hard to stay awake.

"Your dog?" The man scoffed. "How do I know it's your dog? Can you prove it?"

Lily and James looked at each other. Lily shrugged. "Well, technically we can't prove that he's ours…" she began but was interrupted.

"If you can't prove it then he's not yours." The man said and gave Lily and James a smile that showed them two lines of teeth that looked more yellow than white.

Lily sighed.

"What if we buy him from you?" James asked and right away the owner's eyes glimmered. "Would that work?"

"Yes," he said while pretending to study his nails. His tone of voice much more cheerful than it had been moments before. "I guess that could work."

James swore, when he handed the money over to the owner, that Sirius barking really was laughter. But James was the one laughing when Sirius got a collar around his neck and was put on a lease; to make sure that he didn't run away again. Lily didn't try to hide her smile as they walked out hand in hand. Sirius went between whining and barking. Almost like he couldn't make up his mind if this was funny or just embarrassing. James didn't know what to think either.

"You will never stop reminding me about this Padfoot." James stated and Sirius glanced back at him, his tail wagging quicker now than before. Lily laughed at the look on her husband face and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. "I can hear it already. Hey, remember when Lily and James bought a dog."

The end