Chp5

Hayley Rose Potter was having the time of her life. Or she would be having the time of her life if her glasses wouldn't keep falling off and Hermione stopped yelling at her. It was Sirius's fault. What was she, a young witch supposed to do with a broom if not fly it. Sweep the floor? She felt like Gwenog Jones, gosh she wished she could be a Harpy! If only she would let her. She could still hear her yelling, but now it was directed at Sirius. She knew she was never going to hear the end of this, so why not fly faster.

Later on, after being sentenced to wash the dishes 'without magic', she recounted her tale to Sirius who listened to it with much laughter.

'So there I was, Gwenog Jones, the legend herself attempting the sloth-grip roll- ', Sirius cut her off, 'You know, Gwenog and I once went out together.'

Hayley laughed, 'Yeah right, and me and Victor Krum are pen-pals.'

Sirius grimaced, 'What lows has quidditch fallen to. In my time, we had flyers with class, with flair, not gargoyles on brooms.'

'You're speaking as if you've met him.'

'Maybe I have. Have you?'

Hayley continued, 'Anyways', she paused as Hermione had just entered the kitchen.

'Well, go on', said Sirius while trying to repress a yawn.

'I know you guys won't believe it,' said Hayley, 'but I almost crashed into a flying car.'

Sirius guffawed, 'That's even more fu-,' he looked at Hermione, 'even more unusual than my tale about the troll's leg we Blacks use as an umbrella holder.' Both of them glanced at Hermione, Hayley noticed that she was again fidgeting with the ring on the index finger of her right hand.

Sirius noticed that Hermione wasn't enjoying the tale so he changed the subject. He knew she always enjoyed tales of the marauders and so did Hayley as most of them included her parents.

'Have I told you of the about the first time we transformed into animagi?'

Hayley shook her head.

Sirius chanced a look at Hermione and saw that she had started putting away the dishes. He got up and started helping her. He wasn't sure why she didn't use magic but he was sure she was muggle born by the way she did things. Even after all these years, Hermione was an enigma to him.

'Hey…. Hello…..mutt!'

'Language Rose,' said Hermione giving her one of 'the' looks, causing both Sirius and her to shudder.

'So, Sirius,' said Hermione, 'Are you going to tell us or leave us hanging?'

Sirius cleared his throat and rolled up imaginary sleeves, 'Well, we were near the end of our fourth year. James and I had understood all the theory and spell work while Peter had made all the necessary potions. But our plans had hit a little snag. The book had that 'know yourself' nonsense or you wouldn't be able to have a complete transformation. Another one said 'find your inner animal', a third one even went as far as to say just drink the blood of the animal you want to transform into. So obviously there we were me, James and Peter.'

A dark look came on Sirius's face before he continued on, 'Trying to know ourselves or attempting to discover our inner animals. James went as far as to try and search for some lion blood. And we were trying to do all this while keeping it a secret from Remus. Then the holidays came.'

He paused and looked at Hermione who appeared to be deep in thought.

'Well go on,' it was Hayley,' after the holidays?'

'After the holidays we were all animagi,' said Sirius.

'What happened then? How?' Hayley said, her eyes all screwed up in concentration.

'Hmmm, I'm not sure you're old enough to know that. How old are you again?' said Sirius grinning at her.

Hayley narrowed her eyes at that, 'I'll have you know that I'm 11 and will be receiving my Hogwarts letter any day now.'

'That is if…. you have magic,' said Sirius teasing her causing her to pale and look at Hermione who was still deep in thought.

Sensing that both of them were looking at her, Hermione shook her head and gave Hayley a smile, 'Don't listen to him Rose, you know he likes to tease you.'

'But he could be right 'mione, I haven't shown any signs of having magic. Maybe I am a squib.' Seeing her panicked face made Hermione glare at Sirius who too had gotten a concerned look on his face. She got up and hugged Hayley, 'Even if you are one, I'll still always be here for you and so will Sirius. Although I think he wants to spend the night in Bathilda's room listening to her stories if he doesn't finish the one he started.

Sirius raise his hands and shrugged, 'If you say so love. So umm where was I?'

Hayley spoke up,' You guys became animagi in the holidays.'

'Oh right. My memories a bit foggy but it happened something like this. James invited us to spend a week at his home. Remus declined saying that Dumbledore had told him not to leave his home as it wasn't safe what with his transformation and everything. James's parents had to leave for two days to attend some pureblood society function so we had the house to ourselves. James had somehow gotten his hands on some firewhisky. We spent the evening listening to him declaring his love for Lily; each word accentuated by a hiccups. His last words were, 'bugger it all, I'm just gonna pump Remus full of this stuff so he doesn't harm himself when he transforms', then he passed out. Me and Peter were too far gone to care and I think Peter came up with this crazy idea to spend the night outside in the grounds so we could be like animals. So, we levitated James up a tree and began a game of quidditch using James's practice brooms. The last thing I remember is hitting my head on a tree branch and passing out.'

Sirius looked at Hayley and Hermione who were hanging on his every word. He cleared his throat loudly and glanced at Hermione.

Hermione rolled her eyes, 'I think she can listen to at lesast one of your 'less' savory tales.

Sirius winked at Hayley and continued, 'It's true, after that I don't remember everything….except being shaken awake, naked near dawn by an equally naked Peter.' Hayley guffawed.

Sirius narrowed his eyes at her,' Anyways, there he was shaking and me whimpering, 'Wh..w..w..where's James? Sirius….James?' I mumbled something about him being stuck up a tree. I had a blinding headache at the time and the world was all tipsy for me. Then he struck me on the back of the neck,' Sirius will you be serious for one second.' I was about to give him my trademark reply when it hit me. I was naked, in my best friend's homes' grounds. And he was up some tree and why were there little mounds here and there as if somebody had been digging holes the whole night.'

Sirius paused when he saw Hermione trying to control her laughter whereas Hayley was grinning like crazy.

'I looked at the tree root which I'd been using as a pillow and saw that it had bite marks all over it. That's when I started to get an inkling about what had happened. Peter took my hand and said that we had to go out and look for James. But first we needed clothes so we ran back to the manor, After covering ourselves and getting our wands we set out to search for James. We spent an hour looking up trees and shouting for James but weren't able to find him. We were getting worried by then. Suddenly we heard thumping coming from the a copse of trees which caused Peter to yelp and bump into me. I lost my balance and fell but instead of falling down on my hands I saw paws. Big black paws with claws. I swear I still hadn't realized that I'd turned into a dog. I turned around to tell Peter to man up but the only sound which came out was 'woof woof'.

Sirius had to stop his story-telling as Hermione was clutching her stomach laughing while Hayley was rolling on the ground with laughter. Just at that moment Bathilda entered the kitchen with a frown on her face no doubt drawn towards it due to the noise the two were making.

Sirius saw Bathilda's accusing eyes and just shrugged. Clearing his throat he said, 'Moving on, I was expecting to see Peter but the only thing which I saw was a rat which looked like it had passed out. That's when things clicked, I was a DOG and the rat in front of me was none other than Peter. So there we were, the dog and the rat. An unlikely duo, searching for your lovesick father. We moved in the direction of the thumping and came upon your father, who was naked by the way head butting a gnarled old tree.'

Even Bathilda let out a snort which was turned into a loud cough.

'Me and Peter transformed back to ourselves. We hurriedly stunned him and levitated him back to Potter manor. Trust me that man could sleep, he slept the whole day, and the moment he woke up, he yelled,' I'm a stag.' That night we went exploring in our new forms and found ourselves near a muggle village where….ah..umm….cutting a long boring story short we became more familiar with our animal selves.' With that said he got up and stretched. Hayley jumped onto his back, 'What mess did you guys get into?'

'Hmm, maybe I jumped onto a muggle who was annoying me.'

'What did he do?'

'He had jumped onto my back as well'. Before Hayley could comprehend what he'd said, Sirius transformed into his animagus form which made her fall onto the ground and started licking her face.

'EWWW….gerroff mee MUTT!' cried Hayley.

Bathilda and Hermione left the kitchen shaking their heads.