Young Marauders

2nd of March, 1995.

Hi Cub,

I'm glad to hear that the Second Task went well.

It really must have confused the judges when you

all decided to work together. I wish I could have

been there to see it.

More happy news, I'm not a Werewolf anymore.

It feels almost unreal how I could look at the

full moon and not turn. No pain, nothing.

Chiara, an old friend of mine, thinks

I should take this girl Lana who works at

Madam Malkin's out on a date.

She seems to like me, but I don't know…

Sirius would tell me to stop being so boring.

(I haven't spoken to him yet)

I hope Moody isn't too harsh on you kids

and that you take it easy and train hard for

the final task.

Love Moony

Ps. I have been getting letters from Gred and

Forge. I have a feeling I know who they are

and I will aid them as best as I can.

Harry chuckled.

"What is it?" Hermione asked and he handed her the letter. "You have been writing Professor Lupin? He is cured? How?"

"Oh, there is this guy that just showed up one, day and said he had the Cure," Neville said. "There hasn't been that much news coverage for some reason. Gran thinks it is because the Ministry hasn't decided if they like the fact that people can be cured or not."

"But that is amazing," Hermione said.

Neville gave Harry a look that spoke volumes about what he thought Harry needed to do. Tell her.

"It is really nice that you are keeping in contact with him and he really should take Lana on a date. She is a lovely person," Hermione said. "I have spoken to her several times."

"Should I write that to him?" Harry asked teasingly.

Hermione punched him playfully. "No you don't," she said.

"I was going to tell him to do what will make him happy," Harry said.

"Seems like sound advice to me," Hermione said.

"I'll write a response tonight after we know how many students survived the obstacle course from oblivion devised by the lord of pain himself," Harry said.

For several weeks he had trained the class. Then just the day before Moody had told them that today they would be put to the test in an obstacle course similar to one that was used for Aurors.

This time Harry had been left out of the loop since Moody wanted to see just how good he was. Harry didn't mind. It meant he didn't have to help set it up.

They sat down in the DADA classroom and waited for their Professor to join them. The door opened and Moody stepped inside as a streak of blue headed straight for him. He threw up a shield and looked around. "Mr Potter, what do you think you are doing?" he asked.

Harry turned around and gave him the most fake innocent look he could muster. "Me professor? I don't know what you are talking about," he said. He stood up slowly. "Constant Vigilance!" he roared so that the students around him jumped in their seats. "Besides Professor. I just acted first this time," he said. He walked past Moody and into the next room.

It had grown considerably. He could see the course laid out in front of him. He heard the other students walk up behind him.

"Come on then Potter," Moody said. "Show them how it's done."

Harry threw off his outer robe and walked up to the starting line. He waited for Moody's signal.

"This course is set up to shoot colour marker spells at you rather than anything dangerous," Moody explained. "Depending on the colour stuck to your clothes after you've made it through we can determine if you would have survived or not. You are allowed to defend yourself in any way you please, but since I don't have the proper equipment here please don't attack anything. It will take me forever to set it back up again." He looked at Harry. "On your mark. Ready. Set. Go!"

Harry took off. He dived under a green streak of magic and jumped over a purple one. He slid over a table and grabbed onto a pole that Moody had set up instead of let's say a light post. He weaved and ducked and threw up shields as he needed them. He hissed angrily at himself as he got hit with a beam, but he didn't stop to check what it was. He ducked under another green streak and put his wand away. He wanted both his hands for the next part. He jumped up on a table and threw himself forward. He grabbed onto a pole and climbed up it before backflipping down over a whole set of brightly coloured spells. He hit the ground running and somersaulted past another set of coloured spells. He grabbed his wand and threw a shield up as he passed the last bend then he threw himself down flat and skidded the last of the way as several green spells went flying over his head. Something told him that green was bad. "That was fun," he said as he stood up.

"You seem to enjoy having pink hair, Mr Potter," Moody said as Harry reached them.

Harry grimaced as his hair turned a fluorescent pink colour.

"But you made it through completely unharmed," Moody pointed out. "I have been telling your classmates what the different spells do. I didn't think it would matter so much to you. It turned out I was right."

Harry chuckled. He turned to Zabini. "Your turn," he said. He walked back to the classroom and sat down with a book. He brought a notepad out and started taking notes.

"Mind if I join you?"

Harry looked up. It was Blaise. "Go ahead," he said. "How did it go?" he asked.

"Got hit with a couple of bad ones towards the end," Blaise said. "It's better than Draco. He would have lost his wand in the beginning so he should have done much worse."

"Professor Moody did intend this to be hard," Harry said.

"Still you made it through perfectly," Blaise said.

"I have been training a lot for the tournament. I don't want to compete, but that is no excuse to not train. I don't want to die either."

"What are you reading?" Blaise asked.

"It's the third-year Ancient Runes book. I realised too late that Divination is rubbish. So I'm brushing up on something useful instead," Harry said.

"Do you want any help with that?" Blaise asked.

Harry smiled. "No I think I'm fine," he said. "Thanks for offering though."

"I just want to get to know you better that is all," Blaise said. He reached out and placed his hand on Harry's thigh.

The door opened and Draco walked inside with Pansy. "What are you doing, Blaise?" he asked.

"I'm talking to Harry," Blaise said. He removed his hand and leaned back. "I think he seems interesting, and he isn't throwing hate at me just because I am a Slytherin. It is quite refreshing."

"I haven't noticed," Draco said acidly.

"Maybe because you never could see further than the end of your nose," Neville said as he sat down on Harry's desk. Harry hid a chuckle and Blaise smiled.

"Oh, really Longbottom," Draco said. "I'm not the one with parents in the loony ward."

"No, you're the one whose mother is the sister of one of the crazy people who put them there," Neville countered.

Draco pulled his wand and pointed it at Neville.

Neville didn't move. He knew that if necessarily Harry would step in, and if Moody did walk into the classroom now, then Malfoy would be in a lot of trouble. Of course, it didn't have to get to that.

"Ten points from Slytherin for pulling your wand on another student," Harry said.

"You don't have that kind of power anymore, Potter. You are not our instructor," Dracos said.

"Moody never took that power away from me," Harry said. "Sure he still has to check my decisions, but what you are doing now is against the rules."

Draco pointed his wand at Harry instead. He fired off a spell, and Harry threw himself backwards over the desk behind him. He drew his wand and cast a shield. "You will have to do better than that Malfoy," he said.

"Move to the sides," Neville said. "Give them room. Be ready to cast shields."

Harry didn't cast anything but shields. He didn't want to hurt Malfoy. Malfoy didn't get a single hit in. Harry dodged and stopped his spells with shields. All the while Harry was moving closer to Draco until he could simply grab Draco's wand from him. "I think that is enough," Harry said. "You can pick your wand up from Moody once the lesson is over."

Harry walked back into the big classroom and let Moody know what was going on. He smiled as Hermione made it through the course. She had done alright. She had a few hits on her, but as Moody told her what they were, she still looked pretty happy with herself.

"Went well?" Harry asked.

"I'm not as good as you or Neville, but I did alright. The worst thing that hit me was a cutting curse and it only hit my clothes. It wouldn't have cut me," Hermione said.

"Sounds good," Harry said. "You want to leave?"

Hermione nodded. "I want to finish our homework," she said.

"Neville is in the other room. We can pick him up if you want to go now. This will be everything that happens in this lesson," Harry said.

"Yeah, let's do that," Hermione said.

They met up with Neville and headed out. They could hear other students leaving behind them.

That evening Harry received a letter from Sirius. It was short, only a line long. Sirius wanted to know when their next Hogsmeade weekend would be. Harry wasn't sure he liked it. He shook his head at the thought. Sirius was a grown man he could take care of himself. He wrote the date down and sent it off.

3rd of March, 1995.

Harry looked down at the note in his hand.

Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade

(past Dervish and Banges) at two o'clock on

Saturday afternoon.

Bring as much food as you can.

It was a little over a week since the second task had taken place. The weather was so windy that the Quidditch team had decided they would have to wait some more before they could even attempt to fly. The young ones would all blow away in the wind otherwise.

'Sirius must be crazy,' Harry thought. Like that wasn't apparent. His godfather definitely had some screws loose. He burned the note and continued with his breakfast. He had enough to worry about with the day's lessons. 'Maybe I should take Fred and George with me to see Sirius,' he thought as he stood up.

The first lesson that day was Herbology.

Harry settled down next to Neville.

"Can I talk to you later?" Neville asked.

Harry tilted his head to the side. "Sure," he said.

They continued working with the Umbrella Flower they had before them. The flower was big and colourful. They need to clean the stems off. There were fly larvae and a strange sticky goo that needed to be cleaned off for the plants to grow healthy. It was dirty work but the flowers were really good for everything else in the greenhouses. The scent kept the air clean. There were a lot of complaints going around.

Harry and Neville didn't complain. Neither one of them cared about the dirt and the grime. There was soap and water in the castle. They could clean up later. But maybe after Care of Magical Creatures.

Hagrid was back so the class was a bit less informative than it had been. Hagrid was nice and all, but he was not supposed to teach. He wasn't fit for it.

They were all dirty and grimy when they were done. Everyone made their way back to their dorms so they could clean up. "You wanted to talk to me Neville," Harry said as they left the common room. "We can just go over to an empty classroom and call some lunch up," he said.

"Oh, okay," Neville said. He followed Harry over to an unused classroom. They settled down by a table that Harry pulled out.

Harry called Winky and asked her for some lunch before turning to Neville. "So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked.

Neville reached up and ran a hand through his hair nervously. "I don't know if you think I'm nosy, but you need to tell Hermione what is going on," he said. "I know you didn't tell me everything, but please she is worried she is doing something wrong."

Harry sighed. He rubbed his face. "I know I need to talk to her," he said. "I… I guess I'm scared. I don't want to lose her and I have done some pretty bad things."

"You want to tell her everything?" Neville asked.

"That has always been the plan," Harry said.

"I guess that is good," Neville said. "It won't matter that you wanted to tell her if you don't do it."

"I know Neville," Harry said.

Neville nodded. At least he had gotten through to Harry. Hopefully, he would tell Hermione soon so she could stop worrying so much. They spoke about homework and Neville's parents after that. Harry was going for another session later that day and things were looking better.

Once they had eaten Neville headed to class and Harry headed off the school grounds.

Kato smiled as he reached Alice's bed. "Hello, Alice," he said. "How are you doing today?"

"Knee hurt," Alice said softly.

Kato blinked. That was the first time she had spoken to him. He reached out and placed his hand on her knee. She must have walked into something and hurt herself. "Better?" he asked.

Alice nodded. "Thanks," she said.

"If you look over there," Kato pointed at Frank. "Do you know who that man is?"

Alice looked over at Frank. She shook her head slowly. "Don't know him," she said. She looked at Kato. "Where is my mommy?"

Kato looked Alice straight in the eyes. He was diving into her mind very carefully. He moved about gently. Alice's mind had latched on to the most comprehensive part of her memory. She was about five years old as far as she was concerned. He needed to make sure that there were no mirrors in the ward. He wasn't sure how good it would be for Neville to meet her now, but since he could prepare Neville it would probably work. He would have to write Augusta a letter explaining everything.

"I need to check on Frank. I will come back and read you a story before I leave, okay," Kato said.

Alice nodded. "Okay," she said.

Kato walked over to Frank and checked in on him. It would seem that his attempts to stagnate the deterioration of his mind. The next step would be to try to reach the essence of Frank. He would have to build a plan. He didn't even know where to start. He pulled back and rubbed his eyes. At least things were going fairly well. He didn't want to move too quickly. That was the most common mistake. When things were going well healers pushed it and messed everything up.

Kato walked back to Alice.

"Do you know where mama is?" Alice asked him again.

"No dear, I don't," Kato said. "They brought me here to help you. All I know is your name, sweetheart."

"What happened?" Alice asked.

"I don't know," Kato said. "I can ask a mediwitch if you want me to."

Alice smiled. "That would be nice," she said. "What is your name?"

"I am Kato," Kato said. "Did you want me to read you that story?"

Alice nodded happily. "Yes please," she said. "But you do not have a book."

"I know many stories," Kato said. "They are all up here." He tapped his head. "I'll tell you a story about the Queen of Skyrim."

Alice smiled.

Kato walked through the hospital once he had gotten Alice to fall asleep. She was talking. That was good. She was stuck as a five-year-old. That wasn't necessarily bad, but he would need to be very careful with how he helped her remember otherwise he would confuse her. He was walking through the hospital because he wanted to find a healer that had if not specialized in pregnancies then worked a lot with them. He needed to learn for Chiara's sake if nothing else.

…

Harry was sitting with Fred and George that evening. He was rolling pear rock bars on a marble slag. Fred had made a potion that would make people's eyes and hair change colour. They had placed it in the coloured part of the candy. They had tried it to perfection over the course of the past few weeks. Harry had asked Winky for a peppermint rock recipe so he could make candy for the potion. He was pretty good at baking so he'd figured he could make candy. It was nothing alike, but he figured it out.

The candy was harmless. It just messed with your colours. They had made sure that was all it did. It worked for a full twenty-four-hour period. The twins had been really glad that Harry had become a part of the team when they had first tried the potion because they had gotten sick, and he had to heal them. They hadn't asked any questions, but they wouldn't forget.

Harry smiled as he placed the candy to the side. He grabbed one of the pots he had sugary goo in and poured some white-hot sugar out on the marble slab in front of him. Then he grabbed the second pot and poured some green-coloured sugar mass out next to the white mass. He grabbed them both at the ends and then he started twisting them together.

"You're really good at that," Fred said.

Harry chuckled. "It's fun. I tend to get good at things I think are fun," he said.

"I think it's weird that you hate potions so much, but you love making things like that," George said.

"I like making things that people will enjoy. It is easier with food or candy or baked goods than with potions," Harry said. "I don't mean that potions can't be fun, but people will like the candy for what it is not just for what it can do."

"You do realise that you are slowly making yourself necessary for our production right?" Fred said. "We won't be able to make certain things without you," George followed up.

Harry nodded. "We'll work something out," he said. "Since I like doing this it's not like I'm just going to stop. It's going to be your shop, but I don't know maybe there should be a symbol for things I have had a hand in making. People don't need to know but we do."

"And we can add something for you in the sign," George said.

"A black dragon," Harry said. "Have the two of you ever considered becoming animagi?" he asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, since you told us about the Marauders," Fred said.

"Do you want to meet Padfoot?"

"We can do that!" the twins exclaimed together.

"He wants to meet me tomorrow just outside of Hogsmeade," Harry said. "We can ask him about becoming animagi while we're at it. They did it while they were still in Hogwarts."

"Yes," "that's awesome." "We can have so," "much fun with," "that," Fred and George were going back and forth quickly.

Harry started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Fred asked.

But Harry couldn't breathe to answer him. He just kept laughing.

"We have broken him," George said.

"It would seem that way brother dear," Fred said.

"I hope he will pull himself together," George said.

"Oh, I'm sure he will."

4th of March, 1995.

The next morning the three mischief-makers were up early even though Sirius hadn't told Harry to meet him until two o'clock. There were a lot of other things they wanted to get done before meeting the Marauder.

They left the school as most other students entered the Great Hall for breakfast. The twins were making up ridiculous stories and insane jokes as they walked. A lot of the jokes they would never be able to use since they were either life-threatening or so complicated that they couldn't be done.

They passed by Dogweed and Deathcap looking for some unusual ingredients for their experiments, and Zonko's so that the twins could restock. Harry dragged them into the Magic Neep so he could buy some lasting food for Sirius. He'd just call Winky later when they met the man.

About midday, they settled down in Three Broomsticks and ate.

"Ronald doesn't seem too happy," Harry said softly. The redhead had entered the inn and glared at them as he walked up to the counter.

"Ronniekins is put out that we are telling you things we will not tell him," Fred said. "There is a big difference though," George said. "If nothing else you aren't likely to run off to Mother and tell her everything we are doing just to get in her good graces," Fred said.

"Well, no," Harry said. "But do you really think Ron would do that?"

"We don't know," Fred said. "So we won't try." "At least not now."

Harry shrugged. That was completely up to them. He finished his fish 'n chips. They were going to take a look through Honeydukes. They weren't going to buy anything, but they didn't want to make candy that already existed. The candy shop of course didn't have prank candy. They were more interested in enchanted candy than pranks. It boded well for the twins' business. The joke store didn't have candy; the candy store didn't do pranks. They could do both.

They walked up to the Shrieking Shack brainstorming as they went. Harry was taking notes in Tamrielic. The twins didn't mind since it kept their ideas secret all they needed was for Harry to translate for them later.

As the clock neared two, they made their way over to the spot where Sirius had wanted to meet Harry. Soon enough a big black dog showed up with a couple of newspapers in its mouth.

"Hi Sirius," Harry said softly. The dog walked up to him, and he knelt. "These guys are safe. I'm thinking you'll like them." He scratched Padfoot behind the ears. As he stood back up, Padfoot started walking up a dirt path to a small mountain. The shaggy black dog led them up the mountain. Harry picked up their pace. He didn't want to be walking forever. He knew the twins could keep up and Sirius was a dog. The sun was beating down on them but the air was chilly.

Suddenly, Sirius disappeared into a dark hole in the mountainside. Harry crouched down and followed. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of Buckbeak the Hippogriff that Sirius had escaped from Hogwarts on the year before. He walked forward slowly. He knew they would be better off getting along with the half-bird half-horse. His eyes stayed open as he bowed low. It didn't take long for the Hippogriff to bow as well. Harry walked up to him and petted him. "Hello Buckbeak," he said. He turned around and smiled at Sirius. It had been a long time since he'd seen the man for real. "You should acquaint yourselves with Buckbeak before you do anything else," he told the twins before walking up to the dirty and ragged-looking man that had taken the dog's place. "It's nice to see you again," he said. He walked up to the man and hugged him.

"You didn't bring any food?" Sirius asked. He seemed disappointed.

Harry snorted. "Now if I didn't know you cared about me I would feel insulted," he said. "I have something better than just some food." He walked away from the man a bit. "Winky dear," he called.

The little house-elf showed up. "What does Master Harry want from his Winky?" she asked.

"Could you bring some refreshments for the twins and me and some stomach-friendly food for Sirius please," Harry said. Winky turned around and her big brown eyes got even bigger. "Master this man be dangerous," she said.

"He probably is Winky but not to me," Harry said. "Remember what I have told you, dear."

Winky nodded. She knew her Master was good at fighting. She had seen him going up against Mister Moody and won. "Winky will be right back. Would Master Harry want a table and chairs?" she asked.

"Yes please Winky," Harry said.

"You have a house-elf?" Sirius said. "How did you get a house-elf?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Mister Crouch fired her last summer. She came with a friend to work at Hogwarts, but she was really unhappy so I offered her employment with me. I'm pretty sure she loves working for me. She is a servant, but that doesn't mean I treat her badly. She loves to do the work she does. Taking that away from her would be cruel," he said.

"You have Bartemius Crouch's former elf working for you?" Sirius said. He shook his head. "You're nuts."

"Sure, whatever," Harry said. "Let me introduce you to my company. You can probably tell that they are Ronald's older brothers by their red hair. But this is Fred and George Weasley. Since their very first year at Hogwarts, they have worshipped the Masters of Mysteries. The Marauders." He turned to the twins. "I know he looks a bit disappointing, but what can you do when you're on the run? This is Sirius Black also known as Padfoot."

Winky returned with a table and four chairs, popped away, and returned with some apple juice and scones. Harry sat down "Come on Sirius," he said and grabbed the chair next to him. "You think I'm nuts for taking on Crouch's old elf? You're nuts for even being here. You're lucky that everyone who knows of your animagus form around here is on our side."

The twins sat down opposite them with wide grins on their faces.

"I'm just performing my duties as a godfather," Sirius said.

Harry shook his head, a smile dancing on his lips. "I'm just going to say this once because you're a grown man who can take care of himself. But don't get caught. Constant Vigilance!" he roared in an imitation of Moody.

Everyone else jumped in their chairs.

"Merlin, you have been spending too much time with old Mad-Eye," Sirius said. "Are you trying to give a man a heart attack?" He was smiling though. "You're good at that," he said. "Probably shouldn't let Moody catch you doing it though." A plate filled with food was placed in front of him. He tilted his head to the side. "What is this?" he asked.

"Got no clue," Harry answered. "But it will be kind to your stomach. Being without proper food for as long as you have isn't good for you and just introducing fully spiced food right on top of that would make your entire system flip. I don't want you puking all over the place."

Sirius looked back down at his plate and shrugged. It looked appetising and that was good enough for him. He started digging into the food. "So, how did you two find out about the Marauders?" he asked the twins.

"Back in our first year Filch dragged us off to his office 'cause we fired off dungbombs in the corridors," Fred started. "We saw this drawer he had and just couldn't help ourselves," George continued. "I fired off another dungbomb and drew Filch out of the room so George could go through the drawer." "And I found the Map." "It took us a while to figure it out, but the creators had left clues that we could follow." "We used it for years until we decided that Harry was better off with it last year." "He needed it more than we did." "We didn't know until recently that his father was one of the creators," George said. "Then he told us about you and asked if we wanted to meet you," Fred finished.

"I wonder who's Map you got," Sirius said. "James had his at home after we had finished Hogwarts. Mine went missing when I was out on an Auror mission. I think Moony had his with him as well, but I can't be sure and I have no idea when it comes to Wormtail." He shook his head and smiled. "Either way it ended up with some mischief-makers that's all that matters." He looked over at Harry. "So the second task went well?" he said.

Harry nodded. "We pulled one over on the judges and all of us worked together," he said. "But I wrote that. Why, apart from the company, did you want to see me now?" He waved over at the twins. "They know most of what's going on," he said. "Of course so does Moody so I have people who have my back on quite a lot of fronts."

Sirius nodded. "You don't get the newspaper do you?" he asked.

"I haven't gotten around to getting a subscription yet," Harry said. "I'll get to it someday."

Sirius nodded and was about to get up when Harry drew his wand and summoned the newspapers Padfoot had dropped on the floor earlier. The man grabbed one of them and opened it up. "Look at that," he said and pointed to an article before moving on to another and then another.

Harry looked down at the text and grimaced. "Crouch has gone missing," he said. "Percy is under investigation."

"Serves him right," Fred said. "He could do with being taken down a peg or two," George agreed.

"Some think it's illness but there is no proof to support that," Harry said. He had a sinking feeling that the man's son might be behind his father's disappearance. From what he could read it had happened before he had confronted the man though so he didn't feel responsible. "The only thing people seem to be able to agree on is that he's been gone since the end of November when he attended the first task I guess."

Sirius nodded. "It's strange," he said. "Does the elf know anything?"

"Maybe," Harry said. "But I have told her that she can keep his secrets and she appreciates it. I'm not going to start asking her things now."

"It could help though," Sirius said. "Isn't it worth it?"

"No," Harry said, his tone final. "She means a lot to me and I'm not messing with that. Besides I'm pretty certain that his son is the reason he has gone missing. Barty Crouch was pretending to be Moody." He turned to Fred and George. "That is classified information. The students don't need to know since he didn't do anything overly bad."

"So they broke Barty out eh," Sirius said. "I guess I can see that going south."

"Why don't we talk about something funnier?" Fred said. "We're planning on starting a joke shop." "Do you have any suggestions?" George asked.

Sirius smiled. "Oh, now this is interesting," he said. "We had a book filled with tricks and jokes. I think Remus still has it. I can ask him for it. We definitely need to support a proper joke shop." His eyes were gleaming with mirth.

"You can make a Marauders brand line," Harry said.

"Just like we'll have a Black Dragon brand line," Fred said.

"Black Dragon?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded. "That's for me," he said. "When I'm involved in making the product it is a Black Dragon product."

"We're making stuff already and Harry is baking and making candy like a boss," George said. "He has our hideout smelling good."

Sirius looked at his godson. "You bake?" he asked.

"Yes Sirius I bake," Harry said. He punched the man lightly on the shoulder. "Is that so hard to believe?"

"I… I don't know," Sirius said.

Harry pulled out a little bag of pear rocks. "Try one," he said.

Sirius reached out and took one of the rocks. He popped it in his mouth. "This is good," he said. "There is a potion in this?" he asked. Fred nodded. "I can't taste that. It's really good work. What is it supposed to do?"

Harry pulled a hand mirror out of his bag. You never knew when you could need one. If he ever needed to make an on-the-go glamour he needed to be able to see it. He handed it over to Sirius.

The shaggy-looking man held the mirror up and he started laughing. His hair was sunshine yellow and his eyes some strange kind of green. "This is great," he said. "It's always random?"

"Yes and it holds for about an hour before you can go for a new colour combination," Harry said. "We're going to have several flavours in a mixed bag so you can enjoy it as well as get a new look."

"This is good," Sirius said. "Simple and fun for everyone."

"So we have another question," George said. "Yeah, could you teach us," Fred said. "How to become animagi," Harry finished.

"Merlin no. You three stop that," Sirius said laughing. "I'll teach you but don't twin talk, all three of you."

Harry hummed. "Fine," he said.

"Now the first thing you have to do is hold a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a whole turning of the moon. You also have to meditate which isn't necessarily the easiest thing to do. You do this to find out what your form is. After that, you need to research the animal. I want you to talk to me again when you have gotten there," Sirius said.

"We should probably do it over the summer. Like, start on the last day of school or something. McGonagall will figure us out otherwise," Harry said.

"Sounds good," Fred said.

They spent another hour or so with Sirius just talking. They had several ideas flying around their heads as they left the man.

"You take care and don't worry about me, I'm fine," Harry said as they said farewell.

"I should be telling you that," Sirius responded.

"Oh, and I have been in contact with Remus quite a lot. I can ask him for that book myself," Harry said.

"He told you about Lana?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, I told him to do what will make him happy," Harry said.

"Good, he needs it," Sirius said.