Colorblind

"One thing that no one ever notices about an Animagus is that they retain some sort of the animal they transform into within themselves.

"After yet another night spent as a dog, I woke up, transformed back into a human and stretched out a little. It took energy to stay in another form that long - that's another thing no one ever noticed. After a while, my body gets a bit... used to the other form and I want to keep acting like that. It's like running and, when you stop, you keep on trying to run because you're used to it.

"Spending time as Padfoot helped clear my head. It was bad enough to be stuck inside the hell-hole of a place that I was forced to live in as a kid. Why did I have to be here of all places? Azkaban was nothing compared to - no, don't mention Azkaban.

"Anyway, I had spent at least, ah, thirteen hours as a dog. It wasn't a full moon last night for Remus, luckily. It may be fun to, you know, stay with him then, but I don't think he's up to too much more of that. He won't even let me near him around those days. The dog in me needs company - real company, not a human but a canine, and it's harder to separate the two now. Azkaban's time was mainly spent as a dog.

"So, I had woken up, still as a dog, and walked to see if Remus was awake yet. Not in his room. Probably off somewhere like he usually is. The human in me needs company too. Human company, and Remus is the closest thing I can find. Everyone, actually everyone, is still... wary of me. I guess being in the same room as an infamous killer does that to a person. I had to spend twelve years with killers and I'm not crazy yet, am I?

"Well, back to the point. I was about to go downstairs when I transformed back. Sadly, I was still in the nude. Yeah, there's Sirius Black, he sleeps in the nude. No, I don't always sleep in the nude. It's just, when I transform back, where do you think all that hair goes? Some of it gets stuck to me and wearing white is a pain when there's black dog hair. 'Oh, Sirius, I see you have a dog. What's it's name?' How do you expect me to answer? 'Oh, yeah, cute little stray. Named him Sirius, after me, you see.'

"I walked into the room. Knew the place well enough I could walk around it blindfolded and still be fine. Don't think that's a good thing. I opened the wardrobe - which I don't remember too well. Clothes have something in them that forces them to get messed up in wardrobes. The problem is, my eyesight was still Padfoot's. I was completely colorblind. Being colorblind, in this case, doesn't mean I can only see black and white. I'm between two stages, so I can see colors, I just get them mixed up. Like, I think red is green. I have no clue. I can't see the colors all at one time.

"Well, there isn't much choice anyway. I just grab trousers and a shirt and all of that. It has to match, right? So, I get dressed, thinking I'm wearing blue or black or something. Dark, I think. When I get downstairs, it's only Remus. I figure, it's nice he's there because he's always off being helpful. Too bloody helpful, you know what I mean? Gets annoying. I mean, everyone else likes it because it helps them but I get nothing. All I get is you and, no offence, but you're not that much fun to talk to. Maybe if you talked back.

"So, I was there and still trying to sort out whether Remus turned purple or if that was me. I was trying to see if I wanted to sit in a chair or eat on the floor. That stuff. You're lucky. You only get one choice.

"So then he turns to me and folds up his newspaper calmly and everything. I hate it when he does that. Remus is always thinking something, isn't he? Then he asks me why I'm wearing that. I tell him that I just threw something on. Turns out, he tells me, I got the rooms mixed up - some of us switched rooms a few days before, no one's used to it - and I was in the wrong room and now - now I'm wearing this."

Sirius opened his arms wide, the Firewhiskey bottle tipping in his hand rather dangerously. He had on a light pink shirt and pants that had stars and owls on them. Crookshanks purred.

"I still think it's black," he told the cat as he poured more of the drink into his mouth. "Maybe drag wouldn't be too bad."