Balanced

During the first week of his holidays, James learnt that more Muggles had been killed that year, but the Ministry still hadn't told the Daily Prophet about this. He'd talked Aunt Susan into letting him have Sirius, Remus and Peter to stay for a couple of weeks, after making sure that there wasn't a full moon. Simon was enthusiastic to meet James' friends, although he still thought they were stupid for getting so many detentions.

Unsurprisingly, Sirius didn't knock on the door or arrive on time, although he was early, rather than late.

'Your Mum's not going to be following, annoyed about some Dungbomb, is she?' asked James.

'Sorry, no, she brought me to the end of the street and Disapparated, telling me that I could find my own way here. And Peter came with me, but I don't think he can run as fast as I can.'

'You just left him there! Does he even know where my house is?'

'Er... I doubt it,' muttered Sirius. James opened his window and stuck his head out; fortunately, the small figure of his friend was walking down the street, looking nervously from side to side.

'OY! PETER!' he yelled, and Peter looked up to see him waving from the window.

Five minutes later he had made his way up to James' room and was glaring at an apologetic Sirius.

'Sorry, Peter, I forgot you didn't know the way.'

'I don't know how you can remember all the stuff we do at school then,' Peter grumbled. He threw his stuff into the corner of the room, one of the few spaces with carpet still showing; James had got hold of as many sleeping bags, pillows and blankets as he could for them to sleep on and they covered the floor.

Remus arrived shortly after and his mother stayed for a chat with Aunt Susan.

'Why can't she just leave?' he moaned. 'She spent about half an hour worrying about me: "Are you feeling OK?" "If you feel ill, get in touch and I'll come and take you home." She seems to have forgotten that however ill I'm feeling after the full moon, it disappears within about two days.'

'She doesn't know we know, does she?'

'No. She wouldn't be very happy about it, and she might guess you would try and do something about it.'

Elizabeth Lupin finally left, calling upstairs to remind Remus to be careful.

'More Muggles have been killed,' James told his friends. 'None really close to here, thank God, so no more missed memory charms on Simon.'

'Where is your darling little step-brother?' asked Sirius.

'He went out for the day with a friend, he'll be back for dinner, so luckily for him, he'll miss lunch.'

'I still don't know why you hate her cooking so much,' said Sirius. James just rolled his eyes.

'Mum offered to take us all to Diagon Alley when we get our booklists,' said Remus.

'We need to get some books on becoming Animagi, though,' said Sirius. 'Will she let us go off on our own?'

'I don't think so,' said Remus. 'She can be very protective at times.'

'Perhaps we could go while we're here,' suggested James.

'How would that work?' asked Peter. 'Seriously now.'

'Simple really: Aunt Susan has started giving me a whole year's worth of pocket money over the summer now I'm in boarding school, as long as I'm careful with it. So we can go out for the day, and take the bus to London.'

And so, three days later, the four boys found themselves standing at the edge of Knockturn Alley, wearing Muggle clothes with wizarding cloaks over the top.

The difference between Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley was astounding. The uneven cobbles were often sharp, and mostly dirty, and the grimy shop windows showed little of what was inside; even the signs over the shops had peeling paint. The people there were as dirty and grimy as the street; some missing limbs, or eyes, a lot wearing rags and a few selling some dodgy looking products. James felt very clean and well dressed.

Sirius peered around, and picked out the place he wanted to go. He strode over to a small shop, hidden in a corner between two larger ones. As they got closer, James could see some piles of books through the windows.

'Let me do the talking,' he told Sirius. 'I can do the Slytherin thing and I have the money. Follow me.' He strode into the shop, leant slightly on the counter and hit the bell briskly, staring round in disdain.

'Can I help you?' sneered a high pitched voice, as a tall, thin and pale wizard appeared suddenly.

'I'm looking for a book with some stuff on the theory and practice behind becoming an Animagus,' he said, using the skill of looking down on a person taller than yourself. It was essential for all Slytherins.

'Aren't you a little... young?' questioned the man suspiciously, and James shot him a look of furious contempt.

'I am sixteen years old, this is merely for some Transfiguration work I have to do.' James wondered if he'd made a mistake, pretending to be nearly three years older, but the man seemed to accept it.

'Your friends seem a little younger to me though,' he said, gesturing to Remus and Peter, although Sirius seemed to appear old enough.

'Do you want to make a sale or not?' said James in the same haughty voice. 'The taller one is my younger brother, he's fourteen, and the others are his friends. I'm babysitting.'

'Very well, very well.' The shop owner turned away to look for a book and Sirius shot James a look which could only mean slow and painful death, as soon as they got somewhere where no-one could see it happen.

'Hurry up back there!' called James and the man re-appeared, scowling and holding a large, leather-bound book with silver edges. There was no title on the front and James opened it, an unimpressed look on his face. The parchment was thicker than normal, and the book seemed old. The writing itself was very fancy, with curls and tails on each of the letters. A quick glance at the appropriate section told James that it seemed to be what they wanted, though he couldn't be sure. 'Hmph, I suppose that's your best. Well, I might be able to offer you about three Knuts for it.' The man looked outraged.

'Don't try that on me! This book is worth at least ten Sickles.'

'You must be some sort of idiot then,' said James, 'paying ten Sickles for a piece of junk like this. I suppose one Sickle is a reasonable price.'

James got the book for three Sickles in the end, and judging from the look on the man's face, he had still made a profit from it. They left the shop and James slipped the book into his bag.

'Impressive, James, I sometimes forget what you're like as a Slytherin,' said Peter, smiling slightly.

'Since when do you babysit?' said Sirius, pulling a face. 'Oh, of course, you're sixteen, and we're fourteen.'

'Oh, stop being stupid, Sirius, it worked, didn't it?' said Remus. 'Now let's get out of here, it's almost as bad as the -'

'- Slytherin common room,' finished James, 'We all know that, Remus.'

'Will ye be interested in anyfink from me cart, loves?' said a crackly voice from beside them and James jumped out of his skin. A witch, well, it sounded like a witch, was standing behind a small, floating table, with lots of Dark-looking items on it.

'Let's get out of here,' said Remus, and he, Sirius and Peter sped off. James, however, approached the cart, and saw from the vague look in her eyes that she was completely blind. She seemed to hear his approach though, and hobbled over until she was right in front of him. Feeling self-conscious about being alone, he only glanced quickly at what she was selling, and saw nothing. He turned to go, but something caught his eye. A silvery piece of cloth crumpled up among a few gruesome relics. Only a bit of it was showing and James carefully pulled a shriveled-up dead mouse off the top, then a large, tangled pile of filthy jewellery. The witch grabbed the cloth and felt it to check what it was.

'It's just a rag,' she told him, 'ye can use it te clean ye broom or somefink.' James slipped his hand under the folds and saw it disappear - an Invisibility Cloak! He'd only seen one once before, his dad's friend had shown him when he was younger and he had wanted one since then.

'How much?' he asked.

'Ye can 'ave it fer five Knuts.'

'Ah, come on, it's only a rag, make it three and you got a deal.'

'Are ye tryin ter bankrupt me? Four's me lowest, then it's yers.'

'I s'pose so,' he said reluctantly and carefully counted out four Knuts, slipped the cloak into his bag and ran. Stepping into Diagon Alley he found Sirius and Remus in the middle of an argument about where he was.

'James, where the hell did you go?' growled Sirius.

'Sorry, mum.'

'Shut it you, what kept you?'

'I'll show you later.' Sirius growled in annoyance but decided to leave it.

Sitting in his room, later that night, James brought out the cloak and told them how he'd got it.

'Amazing!' said Sirius, trying it on so only his head was showing. 'I'll give you five Knuts for it, you'll make a profit then.' He grinned at his friend, then pulled it over his head completely so that he disappeared completely, and made some daft noises.

The four carefully studied the chapter on becoming an Animagus in the book they'd bought. It seemed discovering your animal would be as difficult as the actual shape-change.

'"The Animagus form of a wizard is their inner animal",' Remus read. '"Becoming an animal that is not your inner form is possible, but difficult. The form must be discovered by the wizard, as no magic will tell them."'

'How much do you want to bet Sirius is a slug?' Peter asked James in a loud whisper.

'Hmm,' said James. 'I don't know, I was thinking more along the lines of a dung beetle.'

'Nice to see my friends have such a high opinion of my abilities,' said Sirius. 'So, how do you think we go about finding this mystery animal?' Remus sighed, as though dealing with idiots.

'If your inner animal is supposed to represent your personality you've got to first decide what qualities you've got that may come out in your animal. You've also got to find out about different sorts of animal.'

'Easy,' said Sirius, grinning. 'James is evil, he'll probably end up a penguin.'

'Why?' asked James incredulously.

'Because the penguins are going to take over the world. And Peter is a Hufflepuff, so is therefore an idiot; he will be a goldfish.'

'I can just imagine what we'll look like on the full moon,' muttered Remus. 'A large and terrifying wolf accompanied by a penguin, a goldfish and a dung beetle.' Remus was right: it was a truly strange mental picture.

'You know,' said Peter. 'I think we should get some books from the school library on different animals, that would help a lot.'

In the days that followed, James found himself looking carefully at any animal he saw and thinking: "Could I be that sort of animal?" The answer was always a definite "no", he was not a poodle, or an irritatingly smug cat, and he certainly wasn't an annoying bird that sang far too loudly to be allowed. In fact, he couldn't think of any animal that suited him.

With their Hogwarts letter, a form had been sent, asking a parent or guardian to sign, to allow them to visit the wizarding village of Hogsmeade during term time. Aunt Susan had signed, even after failing to find this village in an atlas.

The four had their usual trip to Diagon Alley to pick up school supplies. Remus had been right to guess that his mother wouldn't let them go off by themselves; fortunately, she didn't mind going to the joke shop and Quality Quidditch Supplies for the long periods of time that it was necessary to be in there. They also went into the owl shop, so James could get one.

'Can I help you?' asked an assistant.

'I'm looking for an owl,' said James, wondering if the assistant expected him to want anything different from Eeylops Owl Emporium.

'Any particular breed in mind?' he asked.

'Not really, I'll just have a look around,' said James. He and the other three, closely followed by Elizabeth, went around the shop peering into the individual cages.

There was one that caught James' eye in particular. The owl was about one and a half feet tall, and grey, with black eyes. Unlike most of the others in the shop, it was awake.

'What type's this?' he asked the assistant.

'Oh, he's an Ural owl; he's been here for quite a long time. We've called him Harry.'

'Why's he been here for so long?'

'To be honest with you,' said the assistant, 'he's very expensive, but he's also very well trained and has a great personality.'

'Hello, Harry,' the owl peered at him through eyes that showed great intelligence. 'I think I'll have him, I doubt he wants to stay here for the rest of his life.' The shop assistant seemed too stupid to think up some response to James' comment, so he merely unhooked the cage and took it to the desk, and took the money James offered.

Aunt Susan was not very enthusiastic about James' new "pet".

'You'll have to look after him, you realise. You can feed him and clean him yourself.' James nodded to all of this; Harry could catch his own food. James would just have to hide any mouse or rat skeletons his owl brought in.

The other three went home soon. Aunt Susan couldn't put up with all four of them for longer than a couple of weeks, and James was, once again, left to amuse himself.

He was watching a squirrel and wondering what it would be like to be one when he was distracted by a squealy kind of shriek.

'James Potter! Is that you!?' The squirrel looked terrified and darted away; James wished he could do that. He turned to see Mandy, the squealer, who was with a group of friends, most of whom he recognised.

'No,' he replied. 'I'm not James Potter, my name is, in fact, Woosa McDougal and I'm a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.' Mandy looked pitying.

'And there I was, thinking you'd grown up a bit.' She looked him up and down and James resisted the temptation to shudder. 'You look very different! I heard you went to boarding school?' The annoying thing about Mandy was that she just didn't know when she wasn't welcome. 'You remember Robert? And Frances? And John? And this is William, and this is Alice.'

'Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a squirrel?' James asked. William and Alice, who he'd never met before and obviously hadn't been pre-warned about him, looked very worried; the others just looked resigned to the fact that James hadn't changed since they'd last met, two years before.

'What on earth are you talking about?' asked Robert, giving him an annoyed glare. James remembered, quite clearly, the last time he'd seen Robert, who seemed to still be annoyed about the Muggle stink bombs James had set off.

'Although I don't think a squirrel is really me,' he added. 'What about a penguin?'

'I think we'd better be going,' said Mandy, hurriedly. Thank Merlin! thought James, as they headed off. True, it would have been nice to have made some friends while at Muggle school, but they were the ones who decided he was nuts before they even knew him.

The rest of the summer passed fairly quickly, James wrote several letters to the others, and they did the same, mostly about different animals they could become, but a few details of what else was going on. James gathered that there had been no more murders, although Sirius' mother still seemed overworked. Remus wrote about various things he did, although not once did he mention the full moon, or his transformation.

Harry was, indeed, a very nice owl; he seemed sometimes to be a lot like James. He could act dignified and like a Slytherin when he chose to, but a lot of the time he was very immature, considering his age. He could also do some very impressive tricks.

It seemed like they had hardly had any holidays before James was standing in King's Cross Station, heading for Platform Nine and Three Quarters. He'd had to run from Aunt Susan, who had wanted to come with him to the train. He seemed to attract a lot more Muggle attention now he had an owl.

'Er... excuse me,' said a voice, next to him, and James turned. A small boy with red-brown hair was standing behind him, with a Hogwarts trunk, and a small owl.

'I er... couldn't help noticing you've got an owl and I was wondering if you were going to Hogwarts...?' James nodded. 'Could you please tell me how to get onto the platform?'

'Are you a first year?' he asked, and the boy nodded. 'Muggle-born? Er... non-magic parents,' he nodded again. 'It's easy, really, just walk up to the barrier and you'll go straight through.' The boy looked nervous, and slightly sceptical, James noted, but he walked up anyway, and vanished.

James then headed for the platform and found it was in its usual chaotic state. He nearly bumped into Sirius, who was standing very close to the entrance.

'Do you have a death wish or something?' he asked, irritably.

'It's simply wonderful to see you too, Jamesy, my friend.'

'Would you not call me Jamesy!?' Sirius shrugged noncommittally. 'Are the others here yet?'

'Peter came with me, as usual, and Remus should be along soon.'

'Where is Peter?' Sirius shrugged.

'I think he went to find a compartment.' Remus arrived a little later, almost too late, actually; he looked out of breath. The three clambered onto the train.

'Bloody over-protective parents,' Remus muttered. 'I had to run from her to get here on time. Sometimes I look forward to coming to Hogwarts.'

~*~

A/N

I don't have much to write here. Thanks to the usual people (betas, JKR, readers, reviewers).

Mainly: apologies for the book James got. It's a little too modern for my liking. I could have added an extra 'e' on the end of every third word to make it olde style, but I didn't. Mainly because it would look dumb.