The World as We Knew It

Chapter 2 - A Plan, a Game, and a Letter

Two hours later, there was another knock on his door. "Harry?"

Harry did not answer.

"Harry, it's me. Sirius."

Harry rolled over and pulled himself off the bed. "Come in."

The door swung open and there stood Sirius Black, looking more handsome and happy than Harry ever remembered. His hair was shoulder length and his dark eyes twinkled. There was no trace of the gaunt, roughened Sirius Harry had spent that last Christmas with at Grimmauld Place.

"Harry! It's so good to see you!"

"How are you?" Harry asked, motioning for Sirius to sit down.

"Oh, same as usual. Bored to death. Stupid job..." His godfather yawned comically.

Harry looked up, interestedly. "Where do you work again?"

"At the Ministry, remember? Department of Magical Games and Sports. But enough about me. How are you, Harry? How was your year?"

"Alright," Harry said, wishing he knew what his year had been like. "Same old, same old. The teachers are piling the homework on cause next year's NEWT year."

"Is that all you do? Study? Come on, pal, you've got to have a little bit of fun!"

"I suppose you mean the same kind of 'fun' you and my dad had while you were at school," Harry said wryly.

Sirius laughed. "What's the point of going through life without having any fun? You've got to bend the rules here and there."

"For a start, I'm not an Animagus and I'm not friends with a werewolf," Harry pointed out.

"Oh, but there's other stuff you can do without getting in too much trouble...Harry, do you like any of the girls?"

Harry was caught off guard by this. "I...uh...um, no."

"That was the most unconvincing 'no' I've ever heard. OK, out with it. Which girl is it?"

Harry didn't know what to say. Sirius was waiting, looking delightedly pleased as he watched Harry's face get redder and redder. Finally Harry decided to tell the truth...or some of it, anyway. "I liked this girl, but Mum just told me today that she's in Azkaban. I thought she was dead. I've never liked anyone since."

Sirius's face became softer, more compassionate. "Ginny Weasley."

Harry nodded, looking away.

"Harry, I'm sure it isn't all that bad," Sirius said. "They wouldn't be horrible to a little girl."

"Being in Azkaban is worse than being dead!" Harry exclaimed. "Have you ever met a Dementor? I met...er, read about them in Defence class. They slowly suck all the happy thoughts from your mind. They drain the life and magic out of you, Sirius! And Ginny's been there for four years."

He glared at his godfather, almost daring Sirius to contradict him. Then an idea came to his mind so suddenly that he jerked up, surprised. The answer had been right here, in his room, and he hadn't even thought of it till now.

"Sirius," Harry said, trying to sound lighter and more convincing. "Will you do something for me?"

"Of course, mate, anything."

"Anything?"

Sirius looked puzzled. "What do you want?"

"I want you to teach me to become an Animagus."

When Harry's mother called up the stairs that lunch was ready, Harry and Sirius hurried down. Lily Potter, Harry discovered, was a wonderful cook. Her homemade pumpkin juice was better than any the elves ever conjured up, Harry decided. James, Lily, and Sirius chatted amicably about the current events, the Quidditch World Cup coming up that autumn, the new teacher at Hogwarts (Mad-Eye was retiring, Harry discovered), and the recent Muggle attacks in London. Harry kept a keen ear on the conversation and picked up quite a bit of useful information, such as, his father played Chaser for the Oxford Otters Quidditch Team, and his mother worked as a potions scientist at the Wizarding Academic Institute three days a week. Sirius reminisced about how he had tried out for Beater after school but hadn't been good enough ("You were always the best of us at Quidditch, James") and had been finally forced to take a less exciting job at the Ministry.

After the delicious lunch, James invited Harry, Leila, and Sirius to come out and play Quidditch in the carefully cleared lot in the woods behind the house. Leila was reluctant, but she agreed in the end, and Harry scurried back upstairs to retrieve his broom. He finally found it in his closet where he had supposedly thrown it the night before after getting back from King's Cross. He was disappointed to find that it was only a Cleansweep Eleven. Changing to a pair of jogging bottoms (more comfortable for flying than jeans), Harry grabbed his broom and followed the others out of the door.

He found himself in a quiet neighbourhood, with the houses spread farther apart than those in Little Whinging, but still in sight of each other. Harry strained his eyes to read the signpost at the corner. It read, Godric's Hollow, One Mile.

"Come on, Harry," Sirius called, motioning for Harry to follow him around to the back of the house. Sirius had been more than willing to teach Harry how to be an Animagus, even without the prior consent of his parents. "I want it to be a surprise, and besides, it will be fun," Harry had argued. Actually, he hadn't had to do much to convince his godfather. Sirius had pounced on the idea, and by the end of the conversation, he was more excited than Harry.

Harry followed Sirius across the back yard and into the woods. A small path twisted and finally ended in a large field surrounded by tall trees to keep the Muggles from seeing anything unusual. Large hoops stood at each end, and Sirius dropped the case of Quidditch balls in the middle of the field. James was walking around the perimeter, waving his wand and mumbling spells under his breath. "OK, Muggle-repellent charms in full swing," he finally said, jogging back to where the others were waiting to mount their brooms. "Now. Let's see...you can play Chaser with me, Leila, and Sirius can be the Beater, and Harry..."

"Can I play Seeker?" Harry said quickly. He knew it would be a dead give-away if he tried to keep. He was horrible at it.

James glanced over at him, surprised. "Seeker?" he said uncertainly. "Are you sure?"

"I...uh...I've been practicing seeking in my free time at school," Harry lied.

James and Sirius looked pleased, but Leila was looking suspiciously at her brother again. Harry felt uncomfortable under her gaze, and quickly mounted his broom.

"So we'll just forget beating and Sirius can play Keeper," James decided.

"Damn," Sirius mumbled. James laughed. "Awww, come off it, Sirius! You're great at keeping."

"Not against you and Leila," Sirius said. "Anyways, here goes nothing."

He released the balls. Harry caught a glimpse of the Golden Snitch before it disappeared from sight. He soared upward to begin his search, while Leila and James waited for Sirius to fly up to the goal posts before beginning their onslaught.

Harry watched, spellbound. His dad was the best chaser he'd ever seen. All the rumours of his father's Quidditch skills were true. And Leila wasn't far behind her father; obviously she had learned from the best. Harry circled high above the three below, watching his dad and sister move in and out of range, passing the ball back and forth with the fluidity of dancers. They seemed to be able to read each other's thoughts. Slowly they moved closer and closer, and headed in for the shot. Sirius was hovering near the right goal as James shot forward, Quaffle raised, ready to score. But at the last moment Harry's dad flung the ball to Leila who shot it through the left goal instead.

"And ten points for Prongs and Daughter!" James shouted wildly as Sirius scowled. "I'll tell you what," James continued. "If Harry can catch the Snitch before we score fifteen goals on you, you and Harry win."

Sirius merely replied by throwing the Quaffle clear to the other end of the field, and Leila raced to retrieve it.

James and Leila scored once again, and Sirius blocked one of James's goals, before Sirius looked up at Harry and saw him watching. "Get busy and look for the Snitch," Sirius yelled, just barely blocking the Quaffle Leila had thrown at the centre goal.

"Sorry," Harry shouted, and he began circling the field, keeping his eyes craned for the tiny flash of gold.

The game continued below him in even more intensity. Sirius blocked another goal, but then Leila and James scored three more, bringing up the score to 50/0. Harry circled higher, then lower. Once he thought he saw a flash near his father, but then realized it was only James's glasses reflecting in the bright summer sun. James and Leila now had 70 points, 90 points, 100 points...Harry was now searching for the snitch with fervour. Sirius was flying more recklessly now; he did make some truly spectacular saves, but he was no match for Leila and James.

110 points...130 points...and then he saw it. The Snitch was hovering at the very bottom of the middle goal post. Harry closed in fast, then realized that the only way to avoid the intense game below was to dive from directly above the Snitch. He wheeled his broom around, and pointed it downward.

His stomach flip-flopped as the broom plummeted. The ground was racing closer...he was stretching out his hand...and with an powerful feeling of joy he felt his hand close around the cool surface of the snitch. Harry pulled his broom up sharply. If he had been riding his Firebolt he would have been fine, but the Cleansweep didn't respond as well, and Harry crashed into the ground.

The world was spinning. He was seeing stars...his elbow was aching painfully...

"Harry! Are you alright?"

Harry pushed himself up into a sitting position and opened his eyes. Sirius, James, and Leila were crowded around him--James, looking worried, Sirius, exuberant, and Leila, astonished.

"I'm fine!" he assured them, and held up his hand, clutching the Snitch.

Sirius pulled him to his feet. "That was incredible!" he cried, a wide grin spreading across his handsome face. "Did you see that, James? Perfect Wronski Feint! Victor Krum couldn't have done it better. Merlin's beard, you have been practicing, boy!" His godfather slapped him on the back. "And Harry Potter and Padfoot win!"

"Where did you learn that?" James said incredulously.

Harry shrugged, embarrassed. "I guess I'm just a natural. I think I'll try out for Seeker next year. It's loads more fun than playing Keeper."

Leila said nothing all afternoon as they played several more games. Twice, she and James reached 150 points before Harry found the Snitch, but he and Sirius won the other four games.

Sirius was jubilant. He couldn't stop talking about the Wronski Feint all the way back to the house. Leila was still silent. Harry couldn't decide if she was just sullen, or if she had guessed there was something strange going on with her older brother. He did notice, though, that she kept shooting strange glances in his direction.

After supper that evening, Sirius pulled Harry aside. "I'll come by in the morning," he said, an edge of enthusiasm in his voice. "I've told your parents you wanted help revising for Transfiguration N.E.W.T.'s, and they agreed to let me take you over to my house in Camden Town for a few hours every day. I think with my help you could be an Animagus by the end of the summer! I've even got a few books on it." Harry nodded, thrilled that his plan was beginning to work so quickly. "So, see you at nine?"

"Yeah. Yeah, see you in the morning," said Harry, and he watched Sirius say his farewells to Lily and James, then step outside and disapparate.

Harry was awakened the next morning by the crash of an owl flying into his bedroom window. "Whaaaaa..." he slurred, squinting miserably against the bright morning sunlight. He reached for his glasses, which he had carefully placed on the right side of the bed the night before, and shoved them up onto the bridge of his nose. A tawny owl was pecking impatiently at the glass. Harry jumped up and stumbled over to the window, throwing it open. Who could possibly be sending him a letter?

The tawny owl hopped in, and held out its leg, to which was attached a rolled up parchment. Harry took the letter, and the bird blinked at him with large brown eyes and cocked its head as if to ask, "Well, can I go or not?"

"Hang on," Harry told the owl, "and wait till I know whether I'll need to send a message back or not."

He sat back down on his bed and undid the string on the parchment.

Dear Harry, it read. I need to talk to you, soon. I've already owled Lily and James about coming over tomorrow afternoon. Something has happened. - Remus Lupin

At ten-o'-clock sharp the next day, the doorbell rang and Sirius stepped inside.

"Got your Transfiguration book ready?" he said jovially.

Harry felt stupid; he had left it upstairs. "Uh...I'll be right back."

Harry dashed around his room, looking for his schoolbooks. He finally found them stowed away in his closet, the obvious reason being so he could forget about any kind of schoolwork for the summer. Finally he found Advanced Transfiguration and dashed back down the stairway.

Sirius was in the kitchen. He had begged some croissants and jam off of Lily, and was now trying to tell James a story with a full mouth.

"...and I said to her, 'Why don't we go and have a Firewhisky at the Hog's Head, sweet?' But she just gave me a nasty glare and said, 'Howard always took me to the HH Gourmet in London. The Hog's Head is for wizarding scum...'" Sirius gave a girly outraged snort that sent Lily and James into peals of laughter.

"Sirius," Lily panted. "We really need to get you a proper girlfriend. You have no taste!"

Sirius scowled. "Not like I can help it...I didn't get a chance to date anyone at Hogwarts, with the Marauders breathing down my back all the time."

"That's a lie, and you know it," Lily countered. "I seem to remember catching you snogging more than one girl in broom closets when I was a prefect. Was that Rita Skeeter you were snogging in your 6^th year? You hexed me before I could get a good look..."

Harry bit back a laugh. Sirius and...Rita Skeeter?

Sirius snorted. "Not like you and James were innocent either. I know what the two of you did in your free time under James's invisibility cloak!"

Lily grinned wolfishly up at James, stroking one finger over his chin. "I must say, I picked the best Marauder, didn't I?"

"Watch it, Evans," James laughed. "If I remember correctly you weren't too keen on me at first. Took you long enough to come around..."

"You were too busy hexing everyone in sight to even think about girls," she said coolly.

"Ha! You just ignored me because you knew it would make me even more riled."

"I think deep down inside you always liked James...must have been his good looks, 'cause it definitely wasn't his charm," Sirius teased slyly, and Lily didn't even blush as she pulled her husband down for a deep kiss.

Harry cleared his throat. Sirius looked up, but his parents were still glued to each other. "Let's get going, Harry," Sirius said in a stage whisper, "before these two start going at it like bunnies..."

Harry's face was bright red as Sirius hustled him out of the house.

Sirius insisted on side-along apparition, even though Harry assured him that he was perfectly capable of disapparating by himself. "But you're not 17 yet," Sirius had said firmly, and that had been that. Harry was beginning to miss the old Sirius, who would have not only let him apparate by himself, but would have been the first to suggest it. He wondered why Sirius had agreed to teach him to be an Animagus.

Harry landed in the square gasping for breath. He felt sure he'd never get used to the horrible sensation of Apparation. "Come on," Sirius said, striding over towards the rows of shabby houses. He stopped right between number eleven and number thirteen. "What are you waiting for?"

Harry was staring at the houses. He couldn't see number twelve. "Is your house under the Fidelius Charm, Sirius? I can't see it."

"Oh, right." Sirius dug around in his pocket and pulled out a worn piece of parchment. Harry took it, and read: Sirius's house is found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The spidery handwriting was faded, but Harry recognized it. He had seen it once before...on the Marauder's Map.

"Is my dad your Secret-Keeper?" Harry asked.

"Of course he is. Wouldn't have asked anyone else."

Harry followed Sirius into the hallway. It was very different now. The Grimmauld Place Harry remembered had been much more gloomy, dirty, and depressing. Now light streamed in from magical windows lining the once dark hallway. Harry noticed that the dingy wooden floors had been replaced with carpet, and the house elves' heads and the ugly portraits were missing. Two long brightly coloured tapestries hung over where the portrait of Mrs. Black had been in the Grimmauld Place Harry knew.

"Sirius," Harry said, "what happened to your mum?"

Sirius laughed. "You have to see this," he said, and pulled back the tapestries. There stood the life-size portrait of a livid old woman--with a gag in her mouth.

"Your mum is a genius," Sirius explained. "After I inherited this house she and James helped me move in and fix this place up. She tried to undo the Permanent Sticking Charm, but failed, so she just conjured up a gag. She did the decorating around here too."

"This is brilliant!" Harry said, looking out one of the magical windows that displayed a peaceful lake with a mountain background. On the far side of the lake was a tall castle that Harry recognized. "Hey, this is Hogwarts!"

"Another one of your mum's brilliant ideas. Come on, we've only got a few hours. I've set up some stuff in the living room."

Harry followed his godfather into the sitting room. He hardly recognized the place. Two couches and an armchair were arranged tastefully around a fireplace. An upright mirror stood in the centre of the room.

"Make yourself comfortable," Sirius invited, and Harry took a seat in the armchair as Sirius flopped down on the couch.

Harry waited, nervously. He wondered if becoming an Animagus hurt at all, and how long it would take. Sirius seemed to read his thoughts.

"Don't worry, Harry, you'll learn quickly. You've got a proper teacher. You should have seen some of the fixes James and I got ourselves into when we were trying to learn. Once he sprouted antlers and I grew a tail, and we couldn't figure out how to reverse the process. We had to go to Madame Pomfrey with stories about Zonko's joke sweets that malfunctioned. I think she knew the truth, but to her credit, I don't think she ever told a soul. Now," Sirius said, standing up and shoving a stack of books into Harry's arms, "you'll want to read these."

Harry glanced at a few of the covers. The books had titles like, Discovering the Animal Inside of You, Becoming an Animagus in Ten Easy Steps, and Animagi and Their Secrets.

"Won't my parents suspect something if they see me reading these books?" he asked.

"I've charmed them so they look like Transfiguration books if anyone besides you or I look at them. Oh, another thing. Have you decided what animal you'd like to become?"

Harry honestly hadn't given it a thought. "Um..."

"That's OK," Sirius said quickly. "I just wondered. You should start thinking about it now, though. Read that first book" and he pointed to Discovering the Animal Inside of You, "and you'll find at the back an evaluation survey that helps you find out which animals you relate to best. And don't worry if you decide on an animal and then later change your mind. Did you know James was going to be a falcon at first? I was even considering becoming a bear. But I think we'll both agree, a stag fit your father much better than a falcon, and I was much better as a dog. Really, Harry, you don't choose your animal, the animal chooses you."

"Right," said Harry, who was already making mental lists of animals he wanted to read up about.

"First things first," Sirius continued. "Have you ever changed any part of your body before without using a wand or potion? Either accidentally or when you were meaning too?"

Harry considered this. "I don't think so... Wait, there was one time when I was living with the Dur...uh, my mum gave me a haircut and I hated it," he improvised quickly. "I brooded about my hair all night long and when I woke up it was long again."

Sirius looked delighted. "Wonderful! Then this should be easy for you. Most wizards can't change their hair when they're thinking about it, but you did it accidentally. Alright, Harry, I want you to stand in front of the mirror, and look at your hair."

"My hair?"

"Yes. Stare at it, contemplate it, memorise it. Every lock, every wave, every strand. Just watch your hair for ten minutes."

Harry stood and looked into the mirror, feeling stupid and embarrassingly vain to be looking at his own hair for such a long period of time.

Minutes passed. Finally when Harry felt he was going to die of boredom if he had to contemplate his hair one more moment, Sirius said, "Now close your eyes and imagine that your hair is red. Think really hard about it and feel your hair changing colours."

Harry did. Finally he opened his eyes. To his horror, his hair was an odd shade of orange-pink with huge black sections here and there. Sirius laughed. "Good, Harry, good. It's definitely a different colour. Now change it back."

Harry practiced changing his hair color all morning long. By the middle of the morning, he had achieved a shade of red any Weasley would have been proud of. By one-o'-clock, he could change his hair to almost any color he desired, including blonde, brown, auburn, silver, white, and even more vivid colors like purple, pink, and blue. As Harry turned his hair pink one last time, he thought of Tonks, and grinned as he imagined what she'd have to say about his hair. Then he sobered, remembering that if this wasn't all just a dream, he would never see her again.

"I'd say that's enough for today," Sirius said. "Start reading those books I gave you and practice what you learned this morning until you can do it almost instantaneously. Speed is what we're looking for. Oh, and think about what animal you want to become."

He apparated Harry back to Godric's Hollow. "So, see you tomorrow, same time?" Harry asked, one hand on the door knob.

"You bet," Sirius said. "See you tomorrow." And he disapparated with a pop.

Harry turned, and swung open the door to his house. It was surprisingly quiet. He dumped his stack of books on the bottom stair and ventured into the kitchen feeling ravenously hungry. Leila was there, making herself a sandwich.

"Where are Mum and Dad?"

"Dad's at work, and Mum went grocery shopping," Leila said without glancing up from the bread on which she was spreading mayonnaise. "So did you have a good time with Sirius?"

"Um..." said Harry. "I guess so. I mean, how much fun can revising be?"

She whirled around, her eyes narrowed. "How come you're suddenly all concerned about your grades anyway? You seemed happy enough with the A you got on your Transfiguration O.W.L. last summer."

Harry decided to tell the truth, or at least part of it. "McGonagall says I have to get at least an E on the Transfiguration N.E.W.T if I want to become an Auror."

"An Auror? Since when did you want to become an Auror?" Leila exclaimed. "Last year you said you were going to try out for professional Quidditch just like Dad!"

Harry stared at her. He wanted to play Quidditch for a living? "Uh, I've been thinking about it for awhile," he improvised. "We had career meetings last year and when McGonagall asked me what I wanted to do, I told her I wanted to be an Auror. I'm not very good at Keeping, anyway."

Leila glared at him suspiciously. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but the she closed it again. Grabbing her sandwich and a bottle of juice, she stomped out of the kitchen. Harry could hear her progress up the stairs and he winced as her door slammed.

I've got to be more careful, he decided as he opened the refrigerator door.