Daily Prophet Special Report
Safeguarding Students Remains Ministry Priority
Hogwarts High Inquisitor Speaks out to Anxious Parents
“An innocent mind,” said Professor Dolores J. Umbrige, teacher
of Defense Against the Dark Arts and Hogwarts High Inquisitor,
following an emergency meeting today at the Ministry of Magic.
“Is an open mind, vulnerable to even the wildest rumours that might
creep in from the world beyond the sheltering walls of our school. Our
charges, though delicate of years, are such imaginative little people who
build huge, fearsome fantasies from these silly, impossible tales surrounding
the ridiculous notion that You-Know-Who has returned”
Umbridge, who left a prestigious post at the Ministry to undertake the enormous task of shepherding young witches and wizards through these
gossip fueled days, met with Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, to plead for greater safeguards at Hogwarts. “I’m afraid Headmaster Dumbledore, the
poor old dear,” says Umbridge. “Is unable to discern how serious the
situation has become, or he’d have taken action himself before now.”
According to Fudge, “We have honoured Inquisitor Umbridge’s request
and granted permission for her to impose further Educational Degrees,
directed at safeguarding students from even the most accidental distress.”
“Parents will understand” says Umbridge. “That the welfare of our
young charges is our great mutual concern. Therefore, they should not
take it amiss that we prevent however we can, that any word be misspoken,
or shall I say” she adds on a tinkling giggle. “miswritten, that could take
root in their fertile imaginations. We do understand that well intended but misguided family members may let something slip that would not trouble
a more adult mind. We are increasing our supervision of incoming parcels
and owl post, as well as the Floo Network, to make certain that none
of this groundless nonsense interferes with their studies or well-being.”
These latest measures, according to Umbridge, follow an unsuccessful
attempt to let students monitor each other by reporting any tale-bearing or
gossip-mongering, so those responsible could be gently guided out of their disruptive behaviours and into more constructive ones. “Unfortunately,” she explains. “Most just aren’t mature enough to handle the task. The few who’ve proven they are up to it continue to be of great assistance to me.”
In conclusion, she states. “I know these measures may seem a little bit
strict. But there is nothing, absolutely nothing, more important than
protecting our precious young wizards and witches so that they may
grow into truth-respecting, right thinking citizens of the Wizarding world.”
-Ozzie Bodkins- Reporter at Large
To: Harry Potter
From: Twelve Grimmauld Place
Late Winter
Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts
Dear Harry,
It’s getting dodgy sending owls to where you are these days. My fine friend Dapper returned to the owlery two days in a row, still carrying my last letter. On the third morning he fluttered right up to the kitchen window. He kept tapping the glass, preening and thrusting out his leg for me to see, even before I had the chance to open the window and gather him in, that the parchment was gone. I don’t believe he’d be so proud of himself if it had fallen into anyone’s hands but yours. Still, I don’t know how long it’ll be safe for us to stay in contact by owl-post.
Funny, all the time I could’ve spent writing to you and didn’t. It always seemed more important to find a way to see you, talk with and listen to you. Learn for myself how you were faring with your classes and during the Tri-wizard Tournament last year. Mostly, just to spend time with you.
Now meeting is all but impossible. Writing is increasingly dangerous. Not so much for me, because you know that where I am is unplottable, but for you, what with that dreadful Umbridge creature trying to seal Hogwarts tight against the outside world. Real good, locking up the school to protect it from a danger she vows does not exist! Professor Dumbledore’s authority is being undermined both at Hogwarts and in the Wizarding Community. Many of the people that come here believe that, with the backing of the Minister of Magic, Umbridge will try to take over the school and have herself made Headmistress. I’m sure you see the Daily Prophet enough that this isn’t a totally surprising idea to you. But it is a frightening one.
That last letter I sent you got me remembering Hogwarts as it is meant to be and my own time in the castle. The huge, enduring stability of the place. If there was trouble, or danger (and, as you know full well by now there was!) it came from the things we students got up to, not from the staff.
As I wrote, I could almost hear your Dad’s and my footsteps echo through the halls on our way back from seeing Remus in the Hospital Wing, and smell the first hint of breakfast on the early morning air. I could see the swirling orange flames of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room and feel its heat rising around my cold hands. Many of my happiest days were spent at Hogwarts, as I suspect has been true for you, at least up til this year.
If we’re to restore the school to what it was, I believe it important to remember it as a strong and hopeful place, full of talk about magical possibilities, not the sham that Umbridge woman is turning it into these days!
A school is no place to restrict ideas, or to ban topics of conversation. Learning isn’t memorizing a bunch of information so it can be repeated back word for word like a parrot. Definitely it isn’t supposed to bore a person. (Yeah, yeah, right! I know! I say that now, with a grin, even after seven years’ worth of Professor Binns’s History of Magic classes! Dreadful boring, it was, I know, but I don’t want to be too hard on him. Let me tell you, Harry, that I owe a great deal to him and his ever and eternal lectures about goblin rebellions. After all, I made up for a good many lost nights’ sleep in that class, sitting with my chin balanced, thus, just so, in one hand so my head wouldn’t come crashing down on the desk- bang!- and wake everybody up, hoping I wouldn’t snore and watching hordes of rebellious Goblins rising up to go tromping through my dreams!)
Of course, you, along with your friends know very well that most of what we learn at school doesn’t come from our teachers’ instruction in the classroom. Not the big stuff, anyway. Not the important stuff that causes us to become someone new, something more than we were before. Of course, for your Dad and me that was especially true… If you know what I mean! (Ha ha!)
Well, here I am, at this same old kitchen table, with my cup of tea close to hand. (Ginger this time, as, even with a log on the fire, the kitchen is chilly tonight)
In the spirit of revisiting the Hogwarts we remember, I’ll tell you a tale about learning outside the classroom. It held some risks for your Dad and me. A lot, not all, had to do with not getting caught breaking school rules. Doesn’t sound risky, does it, compared to what the Hogwarts High Inquisitor (that’s a disgusting title if I’ve ever heard one!) dishes out now, but those were different, I guess you’d say more innocent times.
Still, that particular learning cost us a lot of time and effort. Usually it took place when the castle was dark and quiet, with most of the people in it- aside from us- fast asleep. (Now you see my gratitude to Professor Binns and all his rebellious goblins!)
James and I had to do a lot of studying outside of our coursework to accomplish what we did. But we understood when we undertook the plan, it was for a cause we believed in. It gave us a sense of purpose. A sense we were striving for something important, meaningful. That made it worth the sacrifices… And the risks.
Later on, when the time came to put it to use, that learning brought me some of my best days- or should I say- best nights- at Hogwarts!
Harry, I hope the defense against the dark arts endeavour you, Hermione, Ron and I discussed when I visited your fire last fall, continues to flourish. And that whatever special learning you and your friends undertake in these difficult days, brings you as much satisfaction and sense of purpose as ours did! Those things make all the difference between living life in shades of grey or in rich, vivid color!
A Starry Night and Dog Daze
(An Animagus Tail)
“You know what you’re gonna do now, right?”
I nodded, though James’s words seemed to be coming from a long way off.
I stood in the starlit spring air, but hardly felt the warmth of it.
Not when my terror was so cold, sharp and exquisitely delicious.
This was the moment, at last! Here, in my very next breath…
Three…
A glance to my left… James was staring at me with huge, huge eyes… “You certain that you remember the spell, right, Sirius?”
“Course I do.”
I let out a sigh of irritation. Reached for that deep breath again. Braced myself as anticipation tingled over the back of my neck.
Start over. Here goes. Three…
“You’re sure now? I keep thinking I’ve forgotten something.”
“James!” I shot him an aggravated glance. If he didn’t quit asking, the thrumming pulse of excitement would drown out the incantation that I’d been running, running, running through my mind. Once more, then. Three…
“Okay, okay! Just checking.”
My hands curled into trembling, excited fists.
Three, two…
Off to my right, Peter hung back, sucking his lip.
One…
One friend missing… Remus…He’d see this later though… Tomorrow night most likely. If it worked anyway…
No, not if it worked!
After it worked…
I took the breath, murmured the spell and…
Now!
There was a familiar jolt of dull pain, a ripple of dizziness and a spreading heat through my limbs. The feeling that every part of me that had been solid was melting, melting! Then came a moment to mutter a last spell and make this all stop happening… A moment when I could still mutter that spell, the way I always had done up til now…
But this time I stared straight ahead and kept silent.
The grass rushed up to meet me…
There was a muffled slap against my palms. The ground had stopped leaping or else I wasn’t falling forward anymore. I wasn’t sure which.
I glanced over at James. Or at where he should have been. There was his chest… and, up higher, his neck… My gaze traveled upward to his face… A grin was growing there, wider, bigger and the warm, bright smell of delight was pouring from him as he swooped down on me. “Sirius! You did it!”
I threw myself at him, felt laughter rumbling in my throat! I did it! I did it! I did it! Yes, yes! He dropped onto the grass in front of me, throwing up his arms to grab the sides of my face, his laughter rising over mine. “Sirius, this is great!”
Amazement sang sweet in his voice, tingling through me along with that rich aroma of joy. Yes, yes, joy, oh yes! I wiggled in the warm rush of it and wagged my tail-
Wagged…
My…
Tail?
I… I had a tail?
It really had worked then, hadn’t it?
Oh, it couldn’t have been so easy, not after all that work… after all those times when it grew dark beyond the windows… And we went so, so quietly to the dusty room… We had sniffed and sniffed at parchments… Wanted to put our heads on our paws and sleep… But we had stayed and sniffed for so long… And the sounds we learned to make had worked and now… I had… a tail? Really?
This I had to see! I glanced over my shoulder…
I was gazing along my side, not down my back! Seeing black hair. Had always had black hair, but now there was so much more of it! I looked back at James. Had he changed, too? Hmmm… No… He was about the same as I remember, sprawled in the grass by me, but he had never smelled so delighted before!
Delighted as me! Yes, yes! My tail wagged again! So weird, so cool, having a tail! I had to see it! I turned, felt the crisp, tickling smell of grass breathing between my pads… Something was there behind me- moving- back, forth, back, forth… In and out of my view. Way too fast for a proper look. Something long with plumes of waving black fur… If I could turn a little further…
Further…
I landed on my side as the grass sprayed up clouds of sharp, sweet scent all round me. I tasted damp, delicious night air on my tongue!
James was making the music of laughter! It chimed high and clear! I scrambled over to him in a jumble of paws and thrust my face close to his again so I could tell him what I’d done! “James, it worked, I did it! See? I…”
It came out… Raw raaff, whaa! Arrah wha! A rah! Rah! Rah…
Amazement, off to my right… And a dreadful, bitter stench that made my fur rise.
Fear.
Peter was still hanging back. Did he think something had gone wrong? Already I knew he wouldn’t understand my words any more than James had. But I grinned and went to show him how well things had turned out!
He backed away from me. Confused, I sat down in front of him and asked him what was wrong. It came out in a soft, whistling whine. Why was he afraid? He knew what I’d come out on the school grounds for tonight! He, James and I had been working on the complex animagus charm off and on since we were twelve, more than three years now. At last, the time had come to try it out, down to the very last step. And it had worked! See, Peter? I tapped my tail once, twice, three times, to reassure him.
He wasn’t looking at me but at something over my head. Turning my head, I saw that James was too. A light flickered across his face, grew brighter.
“Potter, Pettigrew! What are the two of you doing out here?” Professor McGonagall’s voice sounded behind me. Standing, I turned to see her only a few feet away, the tip of her raised wand glowing bright.
“Ummmm…” said Peter. “Er… Well…”
“We couldn’t sleep!” James finished for him, scrambling to his feet to face her. From my new vantage point I could see they were standing almost eye to eye. When had that happened? The first night that we’d met her, Professor McGonagall had towered over all of us!
“Well,” She cleared her throat and without moving, seemed to loom taller. “I suggest your efforts would be much more successful if you attempted them in your beds.”
Two, three, four seconds passed and still she barely spared me a glance. In the stillness, I could hear Peter gulp.
Apprehension rippled across the back of my neck and my hackles twitched. It was like having gooseflesh, except now I could feel the rise of fur.
“I suppose I don’t have to ask where Mister Black is right now,” she said.
And then I realized! No wonder she wasn’t boring through me with that “You’re in so much trouble now!” stare of hers.
She didn’t know me!
I’d become a dog!
Oh, this was so cool! So cool! Here I was, out in the night after lights out, sitting right in front of our Head of House and she didn’t know it! My tail began to wag with laughter. Oh, but poor James! Poor Peter! I sat down quick before they could catch sight of my amusement, but beneath me, my tail continued to twitch.
There was only the faintest whiff of uneasiness rising on the air around James as he looked at Professor McGonagall. “Sirius?” He tipped his head, narrowed his eyes as if he were looking through his memories for me. “Oh, I saw him sitting with Remus in the Common Room. He was showing him the notes he took in Charms class for him when Remus was gone yesterday.”
True. Absolutely true. Every word of it. That was exactly where I’d been, two hours ago. James paused. Grinned. I felt his glance rest on the top of my head before he went on. “Remus wanted to be sure he understood what Sirius was trying to say in them, because, well, you know, he has this handwriting that’s…”
So he’d seen the tail wag, had he?
“All right, all right.” Professor McGonagall gestured him to silence. “Back to the tower with the both of you. Immediately. And as much as it grieves me, ten points from Gryffindor. Five for each of you For being out on the grounds after hours.”
“Yes, Professor,” Peter started in the direction of her pointing finger. After a moment, James and I moved to follow, only to stop at her next words.
“Wait! Where did that big dog come from?”
“Over there…” James half turned to point to the spot where I had transformed.
Great answer! Brilliant! I had to sit down on my tail again. But I looked up at James and felt my mouth stretch in a wide, toothy grin.
“Oh,” she sighed. “Must be another one of Hagrid’s creatures.”
“Do you want me to take him down to his house and ask?” James offered and began to tangle his fingers in the fur of my neck.
“No, I’ll do that. Come with me,” she told me, waiting a moment, then patting the side of her leg. “Let’s go.” She held her hand out under my nose for me to sniff. I caught the aroma of the cookies she kept in a tin on her office desk. Ginger, weren’t they? I had the horrifying urge to take a lick and find out. Before I could act on the impulse, I rose and backed away.
Professor McGonagall muttered a quick spell. The light at the tip of her wand drew a pattern in the air. A dark line trailed out of it, floated, stretched, curved, doubled back to cross its own path and form the letter “p”. It hovered there a moment before going slack and tumbling toward the ground. She caught it in midair and stepped forward with it dangling in her free hand.
It was a leash!
I backed another step away. Oh, no! No, no way!
My hindquarters butted up against James who had turned to watch. I looked up at him for help. He made a sound like a laugh that was quickly covered by a cough. “That’s it,” he said, patting me on the head. “Go with Professor McGonagall like a good boy. I bet Hagrid’ll have a nice big bowl of dog food for you.”
Dog food?
While it was true supper was a long time ago and I wouldn’t mind nicking something from the kitchens as soon as we went in, I wasn’t sure I was quite that hungry.
Professor McGonagall slipped the loop at the end of the leash over my head. The pressure circled my neck as she tugged me in the direction of Hagrid’s hut. Grinning, James waved.
Over my shoulder I showed him a good view of my teeth.
First the crack about my handwriting, and now this! Oh, I’d tell him what I thought about that grinning face of his. “Grawwwowl waa oh waaa!” I said.
“You got it mate,” he said, then dashed up the steps of the castle after Peter as Professor McGonagall and I set off across the grounds.
It was a beautiful night. Even walking on a leash (a leash, how embarrassing!) I couldn’t stop my tail from wagging in step with my trotting footsteps. What could be better than the spring of grass beneath my pads and the breeze through my fur? Maybe only that I was out here, enjoying the night while James was on his way back upstairs to a tower full of schoolwork! Served him right for grinning. Dog food indeed!
Oh, well, nobody said I’d have to eat it. After Professor McGonagall left me with Hagrid, I’d simply wait til he went to bed and transform into my human shape. Then slip back into the castle. After I let James know what I thought of that smirk of his, I’d tell him how much fun it might be for all of us to run through these beautiful starry nights in our animal forms. The air was so rich with smells. We could compare notes on what it was to be the different creatures we had adopted.
And maybe Remus could come with us! We wouldn’t only be keeping him company during each month’s lonely exile as we had first planned all those years ago. This could be something Remus could do to distract himself from the pain of his moon madness. Anything had to be better than pacing around in that stuffy old Shrieking Shack with the terrible headache of uncontrolled transformation and nothing to do but to bite and tear at himself! Between Peter, James and me, we could keep him away from the hot, painful smell of humans and yet let him run until he was tired enough to sleep! Yeah, I’d have to talk to James about all of us running the grounds together.
After I got back.
“Hello, Hagrid?” called Professor McGonagall, stepping up to his wooden door and giving it a brisk series of knocks.
Silence.
We walked around to the side of his hut. No sign of him. No lantern in the window. No glow of light from his fire.
“Well,” Professor McGonagall looked down at me as we moved back to the front door. “I’m not certain what we should do with you now.’
I looked toward the castle and tugged on the leash.
“No, we’ll not take you back there. I don’t care if those boys were feeding you scraps from their suppers. If you go missing, Hagrid will wonder what happened to you.”
With a few deft movements, she tied the leash to a lantern-hook on the doorpost, then flicked her wand again. When a large bowl of water appeared, she set it on the ground beside me. “Be good now,” she said in a kind tone, patted my head and turned away.
And- oh, Merlin’s beard- she’d never even suspected! Not for a moment! This was- this was so- My tail thumped against the door as I sat down and grinned up at the stars. So cool, so cool!
Was she gone yet?
I listened for the last fading rustle of her robes. Looked at the bowl she had left for me. In the starlight, I saw the grinning face of my dog self reflected in the water. Maybe, before I transformed back, I’d give this silver-scented drink a try. Find out what lapping felt like. By the time my thirst was gone, I’d know for sure that Professor McGonagall was, too.
And then, with Hagrid not at home, there’d be nobody around to catch me transforming. I could start back to Gryffindor and tell James and Peter how well the animagus charm had worked. Or, maybe, after that dog-food comment, I’d let them wait a bit and wonder.
No! This was too cool! Glancing about to make sure I was alone, I lifted my paw. Stared at it. Saw the image of a wand lying across the pads, tip pointed toward me. I closed my eyes and listened to the flutter of words somewhere deep in my head-
Ani- morpho- cannis- hominid- Cannis? Hominid…?
What came after hominid?
Cannis? Hominid? There was another word! What was it?
I had chanted it to myself a hundred times. Ani- morpho-?
James! I must find James! He’d remember what the word was! If he didn’t, he’d have the notes! Needed to be careful sneaking into the castle, but, no big deal, I’d managed it often enough before! I’d get to James and everything would be all right…
I reached up to grab the leash and pull it off over my head. And felt the smooth leather slip from my fingerless pads.
Oops.
I looked at the door post. At the light glowing in the tall, distant windows of Gryffindor Tower. Ani cannis…?
Even if I could grasp the leash, I wasn’t tall enough to slip it over the hook on the doorpost. I stood on my hind legs and stretched, reaching high and long as I could. My nails scrabbled on the wood and I gained maybe another two or three inches, before I had to drop back to all fours. Still it wasn’t near enough. Had to find another plan for freeing myself of the leash. Simply tugging at the thing was nothing but a pain in the neck!
What would I do to get away if I really was the dog I looked like? Too bad my Mother hadn’t gone in for pets!
Since the lantern hook was a hopeless cause, I began a close investigation of the step and the door itself. So many stories were in the smells crowding together there, one of them must hold the answer. Maybe if I let my nose listen to them, they’d tell me what to do! First there was the cheerful smell of Hagrid and the warm leather scent of the coat he wore. He’d sat here on the step not long ago with some sort of stew. There were traces of its rising fragrance still resting on the wood of the door post. Probably he’d eaten a fine big bowl of it, perhaps as the first stars came out. There’d been vegetables in it- carrots, potatoes for sure, along with gravy and the rich aroma of meat! Oh, yeah, lots of meat!
My stomach rumbled.
I rose. Began sniffing up and down the post, paying most attention at the bottom of it where, perhaps, he… may have spilled… just a bit?
Man, Sirius! I told myself. You’re pitiful! But I kept sniffing the base of the post. Something so fascinating about it… I could almost smell the possibilities…
There’d been a bread roll here, too, where the leash brushed against the wood and-
I lifted my head. Made myself turn away! Dinner wasn’t what I was looking for! A whine of frustration escaped my throat as I looked down the hill to the road from Hogsmeade Village and then back to the candle-lit windows of the castle.
How long would it be til Hagrid came home? Were James and Peter starting to wonder why I wasn’t back yet? How long til they hatched a plan to see if I needed rescuing? Maybe it hadn’t been wise to show James quite so many teeth!
Nothing to do but lie down and wait for Hagrid. Wait for James. Wait for an idea what to do next. Wait for whichever came first. I turned round in a circle, looking for a comfortable spot. Didn’t find one. But then, how could I when I didn’t want to be here? I turned again, reminding myself it would only be for a little while and flopped down with my chin on the leash.
That smell of the bread roll was still there, beneath my nose. Where the leather leash had rubbed against the doorpost. If it didn’t seem so pathetic, I could lick on it for something to do, and the flavor would remind me that someday I’d get myself back to the castle, down to the kitchens where there’d be something to fill my rumbling stomach. Something I could sink my teeth into-
Hey! That was it! I seized the leash in my mouth. Bit down. It wasn’t only the smell of that bread that was there, but the taste of the leather, too! Never thought about leather having a taste before!. But it did! It really did! The sweet rich aroma rose round my nostrils as I chewed. It wasn’t bad, either. In fact, it was rather fine! And besides- The leather was loosing its stiffness. It was getting soft! Softer still. It was starting to fray!
My tail began to wag again. Faster and faster as a voice floated toward me on the night wind. Leaping to my feet, the leash dangled, now half forgotten, from my jaws as I stood listening to the sound of my approaching rescue.
"Ya know, it’s hard on the whole
Makin’ friends with a troll.
An’ it’s not ‘cause they’re trying to snub ya.
But the reason is this,
One can take it amiss
When they insist on tryin’ to club ya."
Hagrid!
Coming home at last! Happy and singing and all ready to set me loose! I didn’t have to chew my way to freedom! Except…
He sounded like he was all the way down at the bottom of the hill. Hadn’t known that I could hear anything so far off as that. It might take him a while yet to reach me and there was something about the flavor of that leash that was kind of calling my name…
I dropped back to the doorstep. Worked at the leather. Got it down under my paws where it couldn’t get away. Gripped it in the side of my jaw. Tugged it. Gnawed it. Squeezed leather juice out of it. Jerked again. Great! I hadn’t needed help after all! I almost had it! Wait until I told James what I’d done! Cool, so cool… So cool…
“Well, look who’s here! Where’d you come from?”
I dropped the leash. Looked up, up and up until I found Hagrid’s bearded face beaming down at me. Felt my own face split into an embarrassed grin. Wouldn’t have liked to admit it, but that leather had been so… well, so tasty… I’d almost forgotten I was waiting for him.
“What ya doin’ tied up to the door? Sum ’un think ya live here with me?” He slipped the leash off its hook. Made it look easy. Bent closer to look into my upturned face. A huge, warm hand came down and stroked the top of my head, traveled to a spot behind my left ear. Never knew getting rubbed there was so nice.
“Not that I wouldn’t like havin’ a fine dog like you round the place, mind.” Hagrid continued as he straightened up. “But there’s a bloke down the pub who’s dog just had pups! Promised me one, he did! Boarhound. Besides, you must belong to somebody who’s lookin’ out for you to come back home to ‘em.”
Yeah, right, that’s right! I wiggled all over. Somebody lookin’ for me to get home.
Still holding the other end of the leash, Hagrid turned for the door. “Don’t know how you got in here onto the school grounds anyway. Happens now an’ again, though. Prob’ly jumped that low spot in the wall by the oak at the top of Hogsmeade Hill, didn’t ya?. Came in for a good hunt in our woods? Gotta look out for that. Them woods, see, they’re full of all kinds of Magic, they are. Not always safe in there, don’t you know? Well, c’mon in, then. I can at least get you a bit of a bite.”
The stew smell drifted out as the door swung open. A bit of bread there, too, wasn’t there? Yeah, great, Hagrid! Thanks! This’ll be so good, so good! I bounded forward.
Til I reached the doorway. There I stopped.
Once I was inside, I’d be trapped! I didn’t know the last word to the anamagus charm! Without it, I couldn’t transform! If I didn’t transform, I couldn’t open the door to get out again! I’d be stuck here until morning and how would I get back into the castle unnoticed then with everybody up and awake and the halls full of curious people?
Hagrid gave a light tug on the leash, then bent to lay that understanding hand on my head again. “Don’ wanna come in, then, lad? Must be ya wanna get off home.”
Yeah, yeah, my tail told him. Thanks for the offer, wouldn’t wanna eat and run anyway, and I do gotta go. Gotta get home, like you said. I’ll catch something to eat when I get there.
“All right then, let’s take ya back where ya belong.” Swinging round, he closed the door on most of that glorious, tempting stew smell. A relief, seeing as how that aroma had gotten a hold on me almost stronger than that mostly chewed through leash! Hagrid left me time for only one moment of regret before starting down the step and along the path. I was moving again through the tall, swishing grass and the candle-lit castle was getting closer and brighter with every step!
So cool, so cool. Only instants til I’d be slipping back inside. Moments til I was up in Gryffindor Tower, mesmerizing James and Peter with tales of my great canine adventure and pouring out my idea for sharing the experience with Remus. Minutes til we gathered up James’s Invisibility Cloak and the Marauders’ Map and set out to explore the kitchen where I would fill my growling stomach. Would there be anything to compare with that glorious scent of stew that was now falling further and further behind… Like-
Like- No, Hagrid, wait a minute here!
Like the windows of the castle were doing-
I slowed. We were moving along a hedge, along a wall. Heading for-
No- Hagrid, wait!-
Heading for, heading for- had almost reached- I pulled back on the leash. Hagrid, no-
Had reached-
No! The gate at the edge of the school grounds!
No way! I sat down on the grass by the stone carvings of winged boars that flanked the tall wrought-iron structure.
Hagrid stopped with his hand on the gate’s grillwork. He gazed down at me. “Don’ wanna leave us then, ‘ey, boy? Well, I’m agreein’ with ya this is a fine place to be, but you’ve a home to get to an’…”
No! I wasn’t going to go!
The smell of understanding surrounded me. Hagrid bent to lay a gentle hand along the side of my jaw. “I wasn’t gonna just put you out on the road!” Rising, he lifted a huge ring of keys hanging from his belt and slipped one into the lock. The gates swung wide before us. “I’ll take ya back to Hogsmeade. Sum ‘un round the pub’ll know where-”
No! I wriggled my backside more firmly into the grass, as if I could lodge it between the blades.
Hagrid’s voice was kind, encouraging. He reached into his pocket. “It’ll be all right.”
No it won’t, it won’t! You don’t get it! You have no idea that I have to stay here to get home- That you have to let me off this leash. That you have to-
You have to…
You have…
You have…
You have… Something… Something interesting… What is it?
It’s something in your pocket, right? Something smelling good!
Now the something’s in your hand. It’s in the air! It’s in my reach-
Back at Hagrid’s, I’d only just managed to evade the lure of that beckoning, meaty stew. Knew I must resist the aromatic temptation of bread that waited there with it. Remembered that again clearly now-
When it was already too late.
There was an explosion of flavor! Flaky crust, collapsing around the moist, tender middle! Had bread ever, ever, tasted so fine before? Or been gone so quickly? It had sailed past my teeth on a straight course down my throat when I realized I had bounded forward to catch it!
Right out the gate.
There was a loud metal clang behind me and a tug on the leash. “Liked that, did ya?” asked Hagrid. “There’ll be lots more, see, now that we’re going to get you home. In a little while we’ll have you safe, with a fine big bowl of supper an’ a good cool drink a water an…”
His voice rose and fell. Warm, cheerful. Saying things I didn’t want to hear. “Won’t be long til we get to Hogsmeade. Tell whoever ya belong ter to keep ya outta our forest. Magic in there, ya know. Not safe if you’re not a Wizard. Not always even then. Don’t let our students go in there either, we don’t. Too dangerous. Have to find a way to keep ya off the school grounds altogether, don’t we?…”
Keep me off the school grounds? Oh, no, Hagrid, not that! We’ve got to slow down!
Over my shoulder the gate was getting smaller, smaller, further away. Like the castle had done before it. Smaller, smaller, then it vanished altogether round a curve in the road. Why did Hagrid have to have such long legs, take such long steps, each one closer to Hogsmeade, where who knew what would happen? I might be tied to another door! Maybe with a chain, not a nice bit of chewable leather! I might get taken away by somebody who pretended to be my owner! Or stolen by somebody with a rope or a stronger leash and a farm cart that would carry me miles away! Hours away! Somewhere I might not be able to get back to the castle by morning!
I had to plan my getaway! Soon!
The road began to slope downward. Sensations ribboned past me on all sides. Didn’t want to notice. Wanted to plan. But they kept calling to me! Calling. Didn’t do that when I was in my human form, did they?
Oh, what was that last word in the spell, anyway? Anni cannis hominid-
No! Wait! Stop! Don’t think about it! Not now! Even if I remembered, I couldn’t, mustn’t transform here! That would be the end of the secret for once and all, wouldn’t it?
No keeping Remus company during his moon madness! No running on the school grounds! Millions of points taken from Gryffindor!
This could be bad. Really bad.
Really had to put all my attention into making that plan. But I couldn’t quite ignore the odd crunch of gravel leaping up between my pads, then dropping away. The strange bounce of the one two, one two, up down rhythm from my four trotting legs.
Needed to think! Maybe I should stop fighting the taste on my tongue that meant rain in the morning, the tickle of a fly that made my shoulder twitch, and do like I did back at Hagrid’s door and listen to what they were telling me. It had almost worked then, hadn’t it? A little more time? A little more serious work on that leather and I’d be down in the kitchen by now with James at my side and a pumpkin pasty in my paw …
I sensed the flash of a rabbit through the tall grass beside the road. Heard a lilting whistle, dancing up, down, up again on the breeze. Rather like a bird’s song, but repeating, repeating the same cycle of notes. Smelled the trailing aroma of flowers, tangles of scent from the trees rustling overhead, brisk birch, tangy pine, sweet dusty oak-
Oak! That was it! Oak! Hagrid’s voice came back to me, carrying an idea.
Don’t know how you got in here onto the school grounds anyway… Prob’ly jumped that low spot in the wall by the oak at the top of Hogsmeade Hill…
Yes, yes, that was it! I was smelling that tree! Amid all the others, I could pick out exactly which one it was! Not far ahead. Oak scent growing bigger, filling my nose. Telling me my goal was up a slope and off to my left. I could see it rising from the crest of the hill. Standing tall in the light of the stars and the waning moon. I could hear the rustle of its branches between the ribbons of whistled notes. See them right past the pointing tip of my nose, past a ditch and a tangle of early lilac bushes. Past the end of my leash! A tug was not a plan, but I had to try it, anyway.
“No, lad!” said Hagrid. “Steady on now. That’s it.”
The whistling stopped. “Hello!” A woman’s voice called out.
Oh, no, no, no! Two people to escape from now!
Hagrid’s long strides slowed. Stopped altogether as she appeared round the curve in the road, a slender young woman with long, darkish hair. Tiny compared to Hagrid, who bent and stroked the fur of my neck. Watched her approach. Great. Couldn’t she have shown up two minutes from now? We were right below my oak. “We’ll just wait here a minute, boy” he said. “We’ll just see what she wants, an’ then we’ll get ourselves to-”
“Can you help me?” She began. “I’m needing to find a place near…”
“Hogsmeade!” They finished in unison.
Surprise rose around both of them. Her eyes were very round as she gazed up at him. Neither moved. I took a step toward her, more to test the leash than anything else.
“I need to find…” They both began at once.
Hey, maybe her appearance wasn’t such a bad thing after all. Hagrid was distracted. If his hand relaxed a little, just a little…
Another step.
“I’m sorry,” they chorused again. “You go first.” Laughter above me. I craned my neck. Didn’t need to pretend interest in the tales her hands told, though my sniffing was more for my forming plan than anything else. Traces of meat pies and tea. Whiff of uneasiness. Stronger tang of excitement. Potato crisps and something rather smoky I couldn’t quite name yet. Train, maybe?
“Ya say you’re goin’ ter Hogsmeade?” asked Hagrid.
“Well, nearby. It’s my first time here, and just overnight. I’m running a sort of errand.” Another laugh, this one holding the flickering aroma of embarrassment.
“Can you give me directions?”
Another step. And another. The plan was so simple! So perfectly doggish, neither one of them would suspect it was a plan at all! But I had to be careful… Move too fast and Hagrid would tighten his hold on the leash.
Too slow and they’d complicate matters by starting to walk.
All I had to do was keep checking her out. Here a sniff, there a sniff, circle round behind her and then…
Castle kitchen, here I come!
I followed the smoky smell that might be the scent of a train across the top of a shoe. Another small step. Caught the sweet, sandy smell of trodden on toffee clinging to the other one. Lifted a paw, half a step more, but… Hmmm. That toffee… Didn’t it have a rather unusual aroma? Kind of a familiar one? Hadn’t I smelled it someplace before? Not at Honey-Duke’s. Not in Diagon Alley…
Then I had it! The day I met James, we’d gone into a shop round the corner from the Leaky Cauldron! The scent summoned James’s long ago words. “It’s a Muggle shop, so the toffee won’t shriek or sizzle...”
She’d been somewhere they had Muggle toffee! Was she wearing Muggle clothes, too? I lifted my nose from her shoe. No robes. Her long hair flowed over some kind of open sweater with buttons down the front and a tee shirt underneath. She wore jeans and carried a bag made from the same cloth. So cool! Maybe she was a Muggle herself!
But she was on the way to somewhere around Hogsmeade! I nuzzled her pocket and sniffed for the wood scent of a wand.
“I can do ya one better than give ya directions,” Hagrid was saying above my head. “I’ll show ya the way. Goin’ there myself. Gotta take my friend here back home. When ya said ya needed to find something, I thought it might be you were lookin’ for him.”
“No, I wasn’t, but-” She seemed to notice me for the first time. Another wave of surprise rose around her, stronger than the first. She took a step back.
“’t’sall right,” Hagrid’s scent and sound were full of reassurance. “He won’t hurt ya.”
“No, no it’s not that,” she said. “It’s only…” Her words trailed off.
Amazing! People really couldn’t smell the difference between surprise and alarm, could they? I stepped forward, narrowing the distance between us again. No matter how interesting it was to check out what humans could or couldn’t do, or to come across a real possible Muggle, I must remember what I’d been learning over and over and over tonight. To keep focused on my plan! Maneuver a bit to the side now and-
Her hand reached out, caught the fur of my neck, slid up to touch my head. Rigid and ready to spring, I paused, only waiting, gathering myself to take those last few steps, to turn, to bolt, to run. But she was caressing my ear. Same place as Hagrid had done before. Such soft strokes. She smiled up at Hagrid. “Only that he’s… Well, I’ve read of dogs like this, so big and black, but I’ve never seen one before… ”
Gentle, wondering fingers. Their kindness stirred something deep inside me and I raised my eyes to meet hers. To my surprise, she leaned forward then and did as James had done, how many hours ago now? Cupped my face between her palms and smiled at me while that delicious aroma of delight rose around us both. “Well, look at what a fine, handsome fellow you are!” she murmured to me. “But you need to get yourself back home now, don’t you?” My tail began to say that getting home was what I was working on, and that she was quite lovely herself thanks, and it was nice for me too, after reading about Muggles, to meet her here, like this.
One swish, two and my tail froze, motionless, then dropped as an odd prickle spread down my back. For an instant I had the strangest feeling she was seeing the other me, the one hidden beneath the annimagous fur.
That brought the plan back into focus. Fast.
No time to tell myself it was a ridiculous idea! That she’d have no way to do that! Even if she wasn’t a Muggle! Even a Witch as powerful as Professor McGonagall had never suspected I was an animagus and McGonagall was one herself!
Silly or not, the feeling had been a warning! Staying too long, giving way to the pleasure of my canine senses until I learned how to handle them, was dangerous! Letting them tell me stories that might guide me toward what I must do next was one thing, allowing them to distract me like I had with the bread at the school gate, or like I might be doing now with this amazing gentle petting, was another!
It was time to act.
Stepping forward into her affectionate caress, I slurped a lick across her cheek. Apology. Whether for my suspicion of her a few moments ago, or my actions in the ones to come, I wasn’t sure. Couldn’t let it matter right now. I took one more step, then I was diving along her side, beneath her arm, veering quick and sharp behind her! I heard exclamations of surprise as my leash pressed round her waist and toppled her into Hagrid! Felt a brief tightness of the leather around my neck before it released and the leash and I were hurtling off the road and through the spring undergrowth. Had Hagrid let go? Had the thing snapped where I had chewed it before? Didn’t know. Couldn’t let that matter right now either.
Behind me, both of their voices were calling and two sets of footfalls, one heavy, one quick and light, crunched across the gravel road.
“Come back!” she called. “Come back!”
“No, no, wait! Ya don’ wanna be doing that!” came Hagrid’s voice. “We’ve gotta get you home…”
Yeah, yeah, get me home! Gotta get me home! I felt the great gather and stretch, gather and stretch of my dog legs carrying me up the hill. Fast, strong, like nothing I’d ever felt before, hurtling me through the grass, through the bushes in great, surging bounds with the wind singing as it lifted my ears! Glorious!
“Wait! Come back!” I wasn’t sure if I could hear the woman now, but Hagrid’s footsteps were crashing through the undergrowth behind me. Could he catch me? In my human form, he’d have already done it by now. Five points from Gryffindor and a quick march back to the castle. Maybe a detention or two thrown in. Might’ve been worth it if I had the choice.
Better anyway than a trip by leash to Hogsmeade.
Better than getting tied to a door or shut up in a pen while Hagrid searched for an owner that couldn’t- exist.
Better than a lot of people asking where I’d come from.
Better than my friends back at school having to think up a story in the morning as to how, as to where, I might have gone missing.
Better than everyone searching the castle and the grounds for hours and hours, then Professor McGonagall preparing to send a worried owl post to my family. Better than her getting James and Peter into her office, questioning them- oh, Merlin’s beard, questioning Peter- and dragging out the whole animagus tale and…
And there it was! The stone wall. Standing huge in the shadows at the top of the hill ahead of me. Growing bigger, taller! A black silhouette against the sky.
Behind and below me, I could hear both voices pleading. “Wait! Come back…”
Ahead and above came the wall, looming high... How high? My head dropped, my shoulders gathered, my hind legs thrust.
Press of pads, scrabble of paws. Softness of ground, roughness of rocks. My shadow below me, faint in the starlight, skimming the flat stones at the top of the wall-
And I was over! Flying through great open darkness, sailing above a bush, through grass before the ground came thudding up into the bottom of my pads. The voices were falling away behind me, fading beneath the thunder of my paws and the rhythm of desire that propelled my pumping legs faster and faster over the school grounds. Get me home, get me home, get me-
There, through the trees! A flicker of light.
Passing the Whomping Willow and the flicker was a glimmer.
Running alongside the greenhouses, the thunder of pads muffled by panting breaths and the glimmer was a gleam! The lights of the castle ahead! Bigger, brighter! Gasping for air now. Around the corner of the gardening shed. The gleam was a dazzle! Across the carriage drive and the dazzle was a blaze! Skirting the bushes and the blaze was a shower of glowing welcome! Story upon story of bright windows, candle upon candle! Lights in the towers, at the entrance!
Home! Oh, yeah, yeah! I was home! I’d made it! Back on the grounds! Back to the castle! Nails clicking up the wide stone steps of my home, my school, my shelter!
The great oaken doors of the entranceway rose tall and welcoming before me.
My refuge, my haven!
A crack of light shone where one of the doors stood slightly ajar.
My sanctuary, my dwelling place, my domicile, my domain!
My domicile? My domain? Hey! That was it! My domain… I had it!
Ani- morpho- cannis- hominid-dom-
I stopped thinking through the spell as the crack of light became a beam and the door slipped further open.
Filch! Skidding stop on flagstones. What if it was Filch? Checking the halls. He wouldn’t let me in! Not as a dog! Not when he liked cats! But if I transformed-
Merlin’s beard! He wouldn’t have five points from Gryffindor, but fifty! A hundred! Five hundred! Half a million! And he’d grumble all the way to McGonagall’s office about thumbscrews, about dungeons, about manacles!
I pressed myself against the wall beside the door. Tried to quiet my panting breaths. Watched the golden line of light widening across the cobbles less than two feet away from me.
“Sirius! Hey, Sirius! ‘s’that you out there?”
I couldn’t see him, but I knew the voice. It was James! My friend James, hidden under his Invisibility Cloak! Waiting at the door, ready to spread it over the two of us and sneak us up to Gryffindor Tower! Oh, yes! At last! Only one thing left to do now-
Close my eyes. Raise my paw. Wand on pads. Echo of words from deep inside-
Anni-morpho-cannis-hominid-dominum!
A ripple of dull pain, spreading warmth. The hard press of cold cobblestones against my knees and the palms of my hands…
Palms…?
Of…
My hands…?
How strange they looked! How odd if felt, to fold my legs under me, then thrust up to a tall, tall standing position! To step forward toward the open door on only one foot at a time! Had this been my normal way of moving til only a few hours ago?
“Sirius! Hurry!”
And then I was ducking forward as a swirling impression of James appeared for an instant. I felt more than saw the swing of his arm that brought his cloak slipping over my head. There was the swish of cloth and the familiar feather weight of it settling over my shoulders. Best of all was the sound of the castle door closing behind me! Oh, yeah, really behind me! Closing me warm into my home as James had closed me within the safety of his cloak.
“Man, Sirius! What took you so long anyway?” James whispered with a quick glance over his shoulder as I moved in close behind him. Molding my footsteps to his, we trod softly, softly across the huge entrance hall and began making our way up the Gryffindor staircase. “I was just about to come out looking for you!”
“Just?” I couldn’t have heard him right! “James! I was out there all that time and you didn’t come for me til now?”
I could hear a tremor in his voice as he fought down a grin. Felt his back his back move against my cheek as he shrugged one shoulder. “Well, I couldn’t hang round in the entrance hall all night, could I?”
“James!” I exclaimed, almost forgetting to be quiet. “Hagrid had me almost halfway to Hogsmeade so he could go looking round the pub for my owner! If this girl hadn’t shown up and distracted him…”
His shoulders were shaking now with the work of silencing his laughter. “They do that, don’t they?”
“Oh, so that’s the reason you were only just about to come looking for me, is it?” I demanded as we reached the safety of the top of the stairs. But I couldn’t quite resist a grin of my own. “By the way, how is our Luscious Lily this evening anyway?”
“Oh, man, she was absolutely- Hey, what makes you think I was hanging out with Lil-? Oh, say, Sirius, look! Here we are at our Common Room already!” James exclaimed in a loud voice, whisking off the cloak. I found myself looking into the frowning eyes of the Fat Lady.
“Password?” she asked.
“Vernal equinox,” I said as James made a great show of folding up his cloak and putting it into his pocket.
“Oh, all right, I’ll let you in, though I don’t know why I should bother,” she sighed. “You’ll only want to come back out again in an hour.”
“Make that half an hour, I’m starving!” I said as she swung open to reveal the warm glowing gold light of the fireplace beyond.
James clambered through with me close behind. One friend, two friends, safe in our Common Room at last. Oh, it was great to be back! So cool, so cool!
A head popped up over the back of one of the couches. Peter.
Three friends again. As we’d been when the adventure began. Three friends making plans to help out the fourth. I glanced from James to Peter. What would they think when I told them my idea of all of us running the grounds together? Of course, after what had happened to me tonight, I knew that we’d really have to keep a close watch out for each other, but it would be so cool, so cool! “Where’s Remus…?” I began.
A relieved smile was spreading across Peter’s face. “There you are!” he exclaimed, nodding at me before turning to James. “Where-ever did you find him, anyway? You left here hours ago!”
“He did?” I began to laugh, turning to look at James. “Guess girls really are distracting, aren’t they, James? Like I said, just how is Luscious Lily, anyway?”
Peter turned to me. “You mean he wasn’t with you all this time? Then where were you, Sirius?”
“Where was I? Well, while James was off snogging with Lily, I was on the way to Hogsmeade with Hagrid to find me an owner…”
“Who said I was…?” James let his words trail off as he looked from me to Peter. His eyes were bright with his own laughter as he reached up to push back his tousled black hair. “But I’ll admit it might be partly my fault he’s been gone all this time! You know when I asked him about performing all the steps of the spell tonight? Well, I finally figured out what I forgot I never asked him if he remembered how to turn back!”
There you have it, Harry.
Definitely a difficult thing sometimes, being an animagus! James never once got tangled up with those hazardous leashes. But then, at least I never had to learn how to navigate narrow spaces with a head full of antlers!
It’s such a great thing, sharing these stories with you! Brings back those times. Reminds me what sort of cheerful, open place we’re trying to restore Hogwarts to. Restore the whole Wizarding world for that matter.
I lose track of that sometimes.
Getting too caught up in my own miseries, I guess. Too caught up in figuring out what kind of help I can be to the cause when I spend all my time cooped up in this abysmal house. I am finding it less and less tolerable here, but I have moments like this, when I can shake off some of the heavy atmosphere of this place. They are the moments when I make a point of searching past the time I remain here, toward some of the dreams that I carried with me from the cave Buckbeak and I shared a year ago.
I know it’s only a bit more than a year now til you’ll be coming of age and will have other ideas of your own, but I still dream that you might come to live with me. For a little while at least. And somewhere other than here of course!
And I have dreams of that Medi-Wizard I wrote to you about. The one with the honey hair, who I met, it must be seven years or so ago now, when I was still in Azkaban. I was always hoping she was more than a vision. Had myself at least halfway convinced of it too, if for no other reason than I didn’t know I had it in me to dream up anyone so lovely as she was. Then, when I was carrying round the tea at an Order of the Phoenix meeting a while back, I handed a cup to a Witch sitting in the corner. When she said thank you, her voice was like a song. Beautiful. But it was as she looked up at me that I almost spilled the whole tea service right down the front of her robes. When I saw that her eyes were pansy-blue.
Not only a voice like a song, but her name is as well. She’s called Hessia Nightingale. Someday, when I clear my name, I would like to get to know her better!
And get all these letters my letters for you out of this tin and into your hands.
Until that hopeful day comes, Harry, stay watchful, stay safe, keep your friends as close to you as mine were to me in those great, great Hogwarts days!
Your proud and affectionate Godfather
Sirius