James woke up with a surprise. A dog was in his room, but the dog was not Sirius. Upon Closer inspection, it may not be a dog at all! He slowly crawled forward in the bed and peered over. It was furry, white, and had large ears! Oh no, James thought, did Kreacher catch a furry fungus disease? It growled at him the closer he got. James needed to be closer to figure out what it was. Carefully, James approached the creature and gasped; the scar on the fluffy animal's forehead was a lightning bolt.
“HARRY POTTER!” James gasped. “SIRIUS! What did you do!” James yelled, his voice filled with disbelief.
“Shit,” Sirius responded, “Have you found Harry?”
“What do you mean have I found Harry? He’s staring right at me, or at least something is.” James yelled, his voice tinged with confusion.
“Don’t let Lily, Regulus, or Remus find out!” Sirius yelled, his voice filled with fear, as he sprinted up the stairs.
James heard a door open downstairs and Regulus’s voice, “Don’t tell me what,” he yelled!
“Shit,” James heard Sirius yell, followed by a crashing sound.
James picked up Harry and looked down the stairs to see Sirius on the floor and Regulus walking around the corner. Regulus looked down at Sirius and then up the stairs at James before his eyes landed on the fluffy white creature James was holding.
“What on earth is that thing?” Regulus glared.
James looked down at what he assumed was Harry and back at Regulus. “Um, I believe it's our son,” he said with a confused look.
Regulus sighs. “Sirius, fix my son. I don’t need to interrupt Lily and Remus’s Friend date.”
“ I was going to!” Sirius said. “The only problem is that Minnie has the transfiguration antidote. I tried to message her, but she’s on holiday!”
“How Exactly did this happen? If I know the context, I might be able to reverse it.” Regulus sighs.
“My love, as amazing as you are at potions, that doesn’t seem to transfer to your transfiguration skills,” James hesitantly replies. “Maybe we should get Lily, Love,” James added quietly.
“I don’t want to get Lily involved-” Regulus was cut off by the sound of a car pulling in the driveway. “Dammit,” Regulus hisses. He kicks Sirius in the side. “Get up before Lily and Remus walk in and ask questions, and James don’t come down the stairs yet.”
“Why can’t James come down,” Remus asks.
Sirius jumps up. “Nothing, my moon,” Sirius says, kissing Remus to distract him and guide him to the kitchen.
“Where’s Harry?” Lily asks. “Remus and I bought him a little book at the store.”
“Um, he’s out on a walk with James,” Sirius blurts.
“Didn’t Regulus just tell James not to come downstairs?” Lily asks.
Regulus groans. “Nice going, Sirius. Can’t you be any more of an idiot?” Regulus snaps.
James sighs. “He’s up here, and it’s Sirius’s fault.”
“In my defense, Snape must have conditioned his hair because Minnie is on Vacation!”
“SIRIUS ORION BLACK! What in the hell did you do to my son.” Lily yells. Sirius screams and runs as Lily takes off after him.
Remus sighs. “I’ll go make sure she doesn’t kill him.”
James walks down the stairs and hands the creature Harry to Regulus. “Remus won’t be able to save your brother alone,” and he takes off after them.
Regulus examines his son thoughtfully. Transfiguration has never been his best subject, but Barty received an outstanding on his NEWT from all his extra credit work and lessons with Minnie. With a flick of his wrist, Regulus conjures up his patronus and sends it off, asking Barty for help without giving too much information. As he waited, he walked off to find out if Sirius had been murdered yet. It takes all of 30 seconds before Barty is in the kitchen. All he saw was chaos. First, he saw Sirius and the train of people following; then Regulus caught his eye.
“We’re in need of your expertise,” Regulus told Barty. “Maybe Minnie gave you some lessons on toddler transfiguration?”
Barty sighed, eyeing the creature. “Is that your son?” As soon as he asked, he watched as Lily tackled Sirius. It looked like Lily had Sirius until he shifted into a big black dog, stepped out from under Lily, and scampered off, with Lily quickly recovering and running off in hot pursuit. Barty looked at Regulus. “You need my help when your brother and probably Potter are illegal animagi?”
Regulus sighed and nodded, “they are very smart idiots.”
“I don’t know how you're related to one and in love with the other; at least you were in your right mind to fall for Lily, too,” Barty complains.
“Shut up,” Regulus snaps. “Can you fix Harry or not?” Regulus said.
“Hey, don’t do Harry like that; he’s perfect the way he is!” Barty replied.
Regulus bit his tongue and took a breath. “Fix my son. I don’t want to explain to Effie that her perfect grandson is a fuzzy white creature.”
“What do I get out of this?” Barty deadpans. “From what I can tell, the great Regulus Black needs my help, so what do I get for helping you.”
“Well, you’ll be able to hold your godson again without having an allergic reaction.”
Sirius was hiding in the doghouse with Lily, trying to climb in after. Barty looked at that scene and smiled, “Honestly, watching your wife chase your brother like this is a reward.”
Regulus looked fondly at his wife as she grabbed Sirius by the tail and yanked him out. Unfortunately, James pulled Lily off while Remus checked on Sirius. But that didn’t stop Lily from trying to climb out of James’s grasp to pummel Sirius again. Man, Regulus loved them both.
“Alright, I think I can fix Harry, but first, I need Evan to see this and bring me my iced coffee because I don’t want to make the situation worse by trying toddler transfig while not being fully awake.”
Regulus wanted to argue, but he needed to stop his wife from murdering his brother. He sighed and nodded, “Bring Evan over.”
Evan was there within seconds when he heard that Lily was close to murdering Sirius. “Oh, this was worth being woken up for.” Evan laughed as he handed Barty his coffee.
Barty gulped down his iced coffee and then announced: “Alright, everyone, I got this. Harry will be okay,” which startled Lily out of attack mode to acknowledge Barty’s presence for the first time. Barty plucked Harry from Regulus’s arms and entered the living room. He sets down Harry and sits on the floor across from the creature.
Lily looks at Regulus in disbelief. “You asked HIM? To come here?”
“You seemed a bit busy to try yourself! But honestly, do you want to try to fix our son or allow Barty actually to fix him?” Regulus responded.
“Lily, I’ve got this,” Barty said soothingly. “Last week, Luna grew spikes and turned into a part cactus, but you just saw her yesterday. Look, she’s good as new!”
Lily pouted and dragged James over to Regulus. “If he’s fixing our son, you're both going to sit with me.”
Barty smiled, “Okay, Harry, let's fix this mess your uncle got you into.” The room grew silent as Barty closed his eyes and began to recite the spell. Slowly, the white fur began to fall off Harry, and his ears began to shrink. Soon, a bright light illuminated the room.
When the glow went out, Harry was back to normal, with green eyes and all. Seeing his mom, Harry waddled over to her and said his first words, “Padfoo again!” Harry said with glee. Sirius took off running again, and James and Regulus let their wife go.