- Hog's Head Inn, 7th of October 1995 –
"Fancy seeing you here, Moony!" Sirius' laughter echoed in the nearly empty inn as Professor Lupin quietly closed the door behind him, the notice-me-not charm slipping off him once he entered the establishment in Hogsmeade.
"You have no idea how much trouble we could be in if Dolores Umbridge would realise that we are meeting with the children," Remus scolded his best friend as he took in the teenagers already seated around the table, all of them carefully sipping their butterbeer as Sirius leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed behind his neck. "And get your goddamned feet off the table."
"I'm not a student!" Sirius exclaimed with mock offence, taking his feet off the wooden table as if he were. "And what is all this nonsense about Umbridge anyway? Education Decree 24 only bans student groups, does it not? Since we have adults, a lovely innkeeper, a Professor, and a bunch of teenagers present, I can assure you this is not a student group. Besides, we're not at Hogwarts. All I am doing is visiting the Hog's Head for some firewhisky and to chat with my good old friend Aberforth!"
"You keep me out of this, Black," the innkeeper grumbled as he flicked his wand and locked the door, closing down the inn. "You're doing this right under my brother and that madwoman's nose. If anyone will end up being blamed for this little gathering of yours, it is me ."
Draco and Harry smirked at each other as Sirius and Aberforth kept bantering back and forth. Apparently the Marauders had often frequented the Hog's Head Inn, causing trouble for both Dumbledore brothers during their school years.
"Enough joking around," Remus stated seriously after he sat down next to Hermione and accepted a pint of butterbeer from her. "We're here to learn, are we not?"
"All right there, mate. Calm down. Now-" Sirius announced as he started going off about the ins and outs of animagi training, without bothering to explain the actual process itself. It sounded more like he was recounting all the shenanigans he and James had gotten up to when they were running around in their animagi forms in the Forbidden Forest.
"You have no idea how happy I am that it is you who became a Professor, and not that idiot friend of yours," Hermione sighed at Remus as Sirius kept getting side-tracked.
Their D.A.D.A. Professor winked at her knowingly.
Harry was enraptured by his godfather's tales, however. He had instantly agreed to start learning the magical skill when he and Luna had visited Sirius and his parents in the Room of Requirement. The Marauder's heroic tales would be able to convince the raven-haired wizard to do anything. Draco hoped it wouldn't lead to Sirius' early death in the Department of Mysteries again… Whatever happened this year, they should not end up at the Ministry by the end of it.
"Ehm, Sirius. I think we're getting a little bit off track here," Draco finally coughed, trying to get Lord Black's attention. He himself was eager to learn the skill, never having attempted it before. Hopefully, it would prove to be an asset when trying to defeat Voldemort and his goons.
"Of course! I was much like you, Draco. Always cut right to the chase. Must be the Black blood in us. I understand that you want to get down to the nitty-gritty! Now. Have you all started reading up on the process of becoming an animagus, as we discussed last Sunday in the Room?" Sirius inquired.
The silver trio and Remus nodded. Their previous base of operations was off limits now that Dolores Umbridge had taken over the school, so they were stuck meeting up during Hogsmeade weekends. Hopefully, those wouldn't be banned in the near future. Else the trio might have some difficulties in receiving any of the training they needed now that Voldemort had returned. It was already a hassle to be able to meet in the Room with the three of them, trying to get some extra defence training in.
Luckily, this time, Lupin was still their D.A.D.A. Professor and there was no need for either Dumbledore's Army or having to sit through boring hours of theoretical defence classes with Umbridge. Yet, what Lupin taught them during class was not enough. Draco knew it wasn't.
Sirius nodded at them approvingly, shaking Draco out of his thoughts. "Well then, good that I went to the apothecary this morning!" Lord Black took four mandrake leaves out of his pocket and smacked them down on the table in front of them, looking ever so pleased.
Hermione leaned to Draco and whispered, "Your godfather was complaining to me and Daphne this morning that he seemed to be missing some of his ingredients. You don't think Sirius-"
Sirius, having overheard, merely winked. How had that dog managed to get in and out of Hogwarts unnoticed, just to spite their Head of House?
"First, let me teach you a spell to make sure the mandrake leaf sticks in your mouths," the Marauder stated, a big grin plastered on his face. He was clearly having fun with all of this, no matter if becoming animagi would also give them an advantage in the upcoming war. "You will need to have it in your mouth for a month after all!"
"A month?! Sirius. That was not in the texts you gave us." Remus looked more than a little displeased with this information.
Draco could see Hermione's mind turning, her telltale frown plastered on her face. What had those texts Sirius had given them actually included? Now that he thought more about it, he couldn't remember any of the things he'd read.
Sirius seemed to have caught on and he smirked at them, mischief twinkling his eyes. "Stop whining. I might have let that bit of information out on purpose so you wouldn't all run with your tails between your legs. Or… Well. Maybe I enchanted the parchment I wrote the instructions on too strongly. It was meant to not reveal its contents to Umbridge and her brigade. Perhaps, I forgot to attune it to you four, so you all forgot what you read once we started talking about it."
Harry and Draco exchanged a look, both boys rolling their eyes. They both knew Sirius had not done this by accident. He was a prankster at heart after all.
"What are you lot waiting for? Tomorrow is the full moon, so you better put that in your mouths right now." Sirius crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow at them, daring both Harry and Draco to go first.
Both boys scrambled for a leaf as fast as they could, arms flailing and hands and elbows being pushed at each other, neither one wanting to be outdone by the other.
"Well… This taste will definitely be something I will need to get used to," Draco sneered as he let the leaf cover his tongue before sticking it to the inside of his cheek. The end of the next thirty days could not come soon enough.
- Forbidden Forest, 7th of November 1995 –
"I haven't had treacle tart in a month ," Harry complained as the trio, Remus, and the apparition of Harry's parents made their way into the Forbidden Forest. A few carefully cast disillusionment spells as well as Harry's invisibility cloak had them all dodge Filch and Umbridge earlier that evening. Hopefully, they would have less trouble getting back into the castle.
"I haven't even kissed Ginny in weeks, I had to come up with some sort of contagious muggle disease since she got suspicious of me! Who knew these leaves would taste so foul ?" the Boy Who Lived complained, a sour look on his face.
Hermione giggled as she hopped over one of the rocks in their way, the moonlight guiding her path. "I have no clue what you are on about, Harry. Didn't you just use a simple taste-altering spell?"
Harry dropped the hand he was offering Hermione to help her over some thick roots crawling on the forest floor. "A taste-altering spell ? Really ? And you didn't bother telling me before, Mione?" He looked back and forth between his two best friends, both of them grinning at him.
"Not our fault if you can't figure out a way to be able to snog your girlfriend. Hermione came running with the spell after a mere day of not being able to kiss me." Draco puffed up his chest mockingly at Harry.
Hermione rolled her eyes at his teasing. "That's not why-"
"Why you little!" Harry ignored Hermione and immediately jumped at the blond wizard, slinging his arm around his shoulder and giving him a noogie. "You two did this on purpose, didn't you?"
Their journey was slowed down by the boys running after one another and casting tickling charms, making Lily and Hermione look at them with smiles on their faces as James and Remus yelled out some pointers to the both of them. The boys' laughter chased off some nearby mooncalves and Hermione couldn't help but shake her head at their antics.
Once Draco and Harry got back on the path, and sheepishly apologized to one of the Centaurs they had apparently disturbed while he was studying the stars, Lily, James, and Remus shared stories of their time at Hogwarts while they ventured deeper into the forest. The Marauders had definitely gotten up to all kinds of nonsense back in their day.
When they finally arrived at the clearing Sirius had told them about, the Marauder greeted them with a big smile on his face.
"Amelia is finally starting to show," he said proudly, pushing a picture at the five of them.
A creature behind them cleared his throat, interrupting the happy news. Remus and Sirius immediately raised their wands in defence, but the intruder did not seem to mean any harm.
"Firenze." Lily smiled, recognising the centaur that was standing before them.
He bowed graciously at her. "Lily. Such a pleasure to see you again. The stars told me that tonight would be a joyous occasion, but I never imagined it was to be returned to my dear friend."
"Your mum was friends with a centaur ?" Hermione whispered in disbelief at Harry, who seemed to be as shocked as she was.
Having excellent hearing, Firenze chuckled. "Not just Harry's mother. I talked to your friend Luna earlier today. She also indicated that I should be here tonight. After all, it is not often I get to meet with children of prophecy."
Draco frowned. Children? Surely that must have been some sort of misinterpretation on the centaur's part. He looked down at Hermione, trying to gauge if she too had been taken aback by Firenze's words, but she seemed completely unperturbed. Perhaps she hadn't caught the slipup?
"It's time," Firenze stated, his gaze lifting to the treetops, studying the swaying of the last leaves in the moonlight, not allowing Draco the chance to question the centaur's previous statement.
"Gather round." Sirius waved his arms, making the four of them stand in a circle as James, Lily, and Firenze studied them. "Now, lift up your phials to the moonlight. Make sure the light reflects in it. Yes, very good. A little bit to the left, Draco. Now. Take out the mandrake leaf and put it in the phial along with one of your own hairs."
Harry looked murderous when he took out the leaf and he mouthed at Draco and Hermione "I will get you for this", making the pair smirk at him.
"Next we require a silver teaspoon of dew from a place that neither sunlight nor human feet have touched, which is where I've run into a slight issue," Sirius sheepishly admitted. "All I could find was the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk Moth, so I'm unsure if we can continue with our endeavour…"
"Are you serious?" Remus sighed. "We've been walking around with this leaf in our mouths for a whole bloody month, and now you say that you don't have the next ingredient ready."
Mischief flashed in Lord Black's eyes. "Well, as a matter of fact, I am Siri-"
"I've brought what you needed." Firenze stepped forward, interrupting Sirius' lame joke as he took out a canister-like object which was filled to the brim with water. "Luna told me you would be needing it."
Draco thanked Merlin that the Ravenclaw always seemed to have their backs.
Remus transfigured a nearby rock into a silver teaspoon and started scooping out the water and putting it into each of their phials. Afterwards, they gave the potions to Sirius who would be storing them away safely for them. With a wave of his wand, the four tiny objects disappeared, but Draco noticed that his own phial had an eerily familiar silver glow around it before it disappeared. Had Deandra just intercepted it from wherever Sirius was sending it? But… Why ?
"So what now?" Hermione mused, interrupting his thoughts. "We just wait for a lightning storm?"
Firenze stared up at the stars, quieting them down. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes, his head tilting to listen to the rustling sounds of the forest. "About a month and a half," he deducted. "Then there should be a storm like Britain has never seen before. Luna will be able to help you narrow down the timeframe."
"Wonderful!" Sirius clapped his hands in excitement and thanked Firenze profusely.
As the silver trio and Remus made their way back to Hogwarts, Hermione took hold of Draco's hand and squeezed it, indicating she wanted to tell him something in secret. He looked down at her and allowed her in his mind.
" If I didn't know you had travelled through time, I would think that Sirius was taking the mickey out of us. All of this sounds too ridiculous to be real, even if I am a witch ."
Draco snorted and shook his head. Hermione was right. The process of becoming an animagus was honestly ridiculous. Now they would need to spend the next month and a half, or at least until the first lightning storm came, reciting a certain incantation every sunrise and sundown with their wands placed on their hearts.
Hermione smiled, following his train of thought. "Harry is probably looking forward to that ."
" At least he can kiss his girlfriend again ," Draco joked, poking Hermione in the side slightly, making her giggle.
"Why did you tell him that was the reason I gave you the spell?" She raised her eyebrow at him. " I just found it because I couldn't even enjoy toast during breakfast. "
Draco looked at his best friend who was walking ahead of him, laughing at one of Sirius' jokes while Remus shook his head, a tiny smile playing on his lips.
He sighed and ran his thumb over Hermione's knuckles. " Because last time, fifth year is where it all went south. When we were all forced to grow up, whether we wanted to or not. This is the year Sirius died, Mione. Harry should have all the fun and laughter he can get. I knew saying that would rile him up. "
The witch by his side looked at the two Marauders and her best friend mournfully. "We won't let that happen, will we?" she whispered.
"Not on our watch, no," Draco agreed, pulling her close to him, not allowing the feeling of dread that had followed him these past few months to fill him. Something was brewing again. He could feel it in his bones. He just prayed to Merlin that this time, the war would end before it could properly begin.