Time for Me

Over the next two months, Aries, Charles, and Sev met every Saturday in the Room of Requirement while the Gryffindor Quidditch team was at practice. This was unanimously agreed to be the safest time as both Sirius and James were on the team, Peter never missed seeing James practice, Remus was usually there as well with his nose buried in a book, and Lily would study under a tree nearby and pretend she wasn't watching. Aries thought it was quite funny how, since James had stopped being the quite the arrogant git he was before - at least around anyone who wasn't Slytherin or Aries - Lily had seemed irresistibly drawn to him. They were now the talk of the school as the Most In Denial Couple.

They spent four weeks on the Minimus transformation - studying it and getting Aries to explain the theory behind it - before either Charles or Sev was ready for attempting it. The spell itself was a complex ten-line incantation in Egyptian, as it originated from ancient Egyptian priests needing to imitate the animal forms of their respective gods, and they had to spend another week memorizing it. Aries forced them to know it by heart, and tested them by slipping a colorful fireworks display in between studying and reciting. Once both could recite the words without any mistakes while distracted, Aries decided to let them try it.

Severus had picked an asp, which made Aries a little nervous as he would have to remember not to talk to Sev while he was in snake form, lest he should accidentally speak Parseltongue. The Slytherin went first, holding his wand above his head - as was the technique for any self-directed spells (Aries chuckled inwardly again at the thought of gravity influencing magic) - and reciting the ancient words. Slowly, his form began to shift and blur, seeming to melt into a long, black half-melted candle on the floor. Then the edges came back into focus and there was Sev - a four foot long black snake, his scales glistening as if wet.

"Sweet Merlin it worked!" the snake hissed. Aries bit his lip to stifle a laugh. "Look, Charles, Aries, I'm a snake! It worked!"

With a side-long glance at Aries, Charles said, "Sev, you're talking like a snake, we can't understand you. Can you understand us?"

Sev-the-snake cocked his head curiously, then seemed to frown - if a snake could frown - and reversed the transformation with a small pop.

"That was odd," he said softly. "I know you were speaking English, I could hear the sounds, but I couldn't make any sense of them. But when I spoke, it sounded normal. I didn't think snakes could speak human tongues."

Aries shrugged. "You weren't speaking human, you were speaking Parseltongue, I bet. Remember, in Art of the Serpent, Konta mentions how, to a Parselmouth, Parseltongue sounds like their native tongue, with an undertone of hissing."

It was actually nothing like that at all, but Konta's explanation was as good as anything he could come up with without rambling.

Sev nodded, looking confused. "That still doesn't explain why I couldn't understand English."

"Maybe just like, as a human, you can't understand Parseltongue, even though you're now part snake," Charles ventured, "as a snake, you can't understand human, even though you are one."

That made as much sense as anything, so they put the matter to rest and Charles stepped up to try.

The redhead had chosen a Scottish terrier. He told Aries that a terrier was his first pet back at Malfoy Manor and he'd always been fond of the little dogs. After Charles finished the incantation, he began to blur and shrink, turning paler and paler until he was completely white. Finally, the new form came into focus.

Aries fell on the floor, laughing uproariously.

"That's not a dog," Sev pointed out, raising an amused eyebrow.

Charles-the-ferret squeaked indignantly. He turned back, and even the sound of the transformation seemed angry. The youth cursed up a storm, using words Aries was shocked he even knew - even a few terms he had been sure were purely muggle - before finally settling down enough to ask why that had happened. With lots of cursing intermittent in the question, but he had asked.

"Have you ever been turned into a ferret before?" Sev asked, eyes looking eager, as if he thought he knew the answer but was unsure of just one thing. Harry remembered seeing that same look on Hermione's face on more than one occasion.

"Yes," Charles growled. "A senile, paranoid, completely bonkers ex-auror who taught at my school once transformed me and slammed me against he floor a couple times. Why?"

Aries, having caught on, picked up one of the instructional books and read a passage aloud.

"'One of the reasons so few people ever use the Minimus spell'," he quoted, "'is that it is highly affected by previous self-transfigurations. If the Primus spell were performed prior to attempting the Minimus, the forms would be the same, even if the Primus form would normally be too advanced for a Minimus form. By the same token, if a person had ever, in the course of their education, changed him or herself into some object or other, the Minimus spell would be ineffective.' I guess that, when the auror turned you into a ferret, that counted as a self-transfiguration. So you're, er, rather stuck with it."

Charles glared at them with a fierceness to rival the older Snape's and stormed out. As soon as he was gone, Aries collapsed in laughter again.

"I fail to see just what is so amusing," Severus drawled, examining the passage in his own book that Aries had quoted.

"When we were hanging out here over the end of summer break," Aries lied smoothly, using an occurrence from sixth year, "Charles poked fun at how quiet I was until I got angry and said he was just a chattery little ferret. Oh, he glared at me so hard, and now I see why, and he really is a ferret!" He collapsed into laughter again, Severus chuckling along with him. Finally, when it was almost time for dinner, they managed to calm down, and Aries congratulated him on his mastery of the spell.

Later that evening, as he had done every alternate evening previous, after the first tutoring session, Aries returned to the Room of Requirement. As he paced in front of the wall, he imagined a training room, with illusions of death eaters and dangerous creatures and even muggles - just real enough for him to get into the fight, not real enough to cause serious damage; he didn't want to have to explain a gunshot wound to Madam Pomfrey. From the moment he entered until the simulation ended after two or three hours (depending on how much magic he'd used that day), Aries would be kept on his toes, shooting spell after spell after spell until he was nicely exhausted. The other nights, he left the room in its arena form and worked the weights or ran laps until he could barely move - he always made sure to add on a bathroom before he went in, as he rarely had enough energy before a good soak to walk all the way to the prefect's bathroom.

Both of these nights served the same purpose - to expand his strength by testing its limits. Finally, after keeping with a strict schedule for two months solid, he was beginning to show the results. He could now easily bench a few 10-sets of 70 kilos - more than ever before - run a 6 minute mile, and do 200 sit-ups in one sitting, though he felt like throwing up afterwards. More than that, his magic had expanded so that he needed to consciously regulate the power needed for what used to be extremely draining spells, such as the patronus. The first time the Room had thought to throw dementors at him had been a week after the Ferret Incident, and he'd accidentally shot two stags out of his wand at once. Each session left him so tired that he slept long and deep, feeling more refreshed afterward than he had since the nightmares started after first year, especially on the weekend, when he could sleep a full nine hours without interruption.

He knew that his dorm mates knew he was out late each night, but without the map they had no way of knowing where he was going. Short of following him, that is. He figured they would probably try it eventually, but he cast a Listening Charm on himself while he was walking to and from - if anyone were near enough to see him, he would hear them.

Tonight he wanted to try out a new curse he'd found in a book under Charles' bed. Called the de-clawing jinx, it could remove anything sharp from it's place, be it a dagger blade, the point of a stake, or - hence the name - something's claw. The book didn't say whether the removal was painful or not, so he wanted to try it on the Room's illusions before he had to use it on something else. If it was painful, he'd mentally file it under 'last resorts', but if it wasn't, it could be really useful in a variety of situations.

Inside, the Room had taken on a jungle appearance. Wondering what it would come up with for him to face, Aries crouched by a tree in some underbrush and waited, breathing as quietly as he could. All around him leaves rustled and varieties of birds cried out shrill warnings. Suddenly, an arrow imbedded itself with a sickening THUNK into the tree, just inches above his head. He turned to see a naga holding a bow, already notched with another arrow. The naga let the arrow loose and Aries frantically waved his wand.

"Amoveo Mucro!," he shouted. The tip of the arrow fell to the earthy floor, causing the shaft to loose balance and barrel roll into a bush three feet away. The naga hissed and lunged, huge mouth open wide, baring a row of two-centimeter fangs. Aries shouted the spell again, putting more power into it, and all suddenly the naga had nothing but two rows of pink flesh.

Stunned, the snake-woman reared back and fingered her gums with a look of confusion; but no pain. Aries figured that was good enough and let the Room know he wanted to start the regular training now.

Two hours later, he stumbled from the bath and staggered toward the dorms, grateful that it was the weekend and he could sleep in later than usual. He barely paid attention to where he was going, only keeping half an ear out for Filch - Mrs. Norris he'd charmed with his cat form, so she didn't cause him any trouble. Somehow, he made it back up to the dormitory without any recollection of giving the pink lady the password. And as he dropped into bed, he completely failed to notice the small puddle of musk he'd left his shoes in.

The next day after lunch, Charles decided that if he had to be a ferret - a bloody ferret! He was going to kill Moody! - then he was going to enjoy himself. He had finished his homework Friday and Saturday, and sleeping in until almost noon on Sunday had left him energized and ready for anything. Checking to make sure non of his dorm-mates were there (Aries was, but he was still snoring), Charles focused on the spell and transformed, for the third time in his life - Kill! Moody! - into a snow white ferret.

Suddenly the small dorm with barely enough room for six teenage boys and they're belongings seemed huge, as large as the Great Hall! He tentatively - it was a long way down - hopped off the bed, only to find the landing refreshingly soft. After a few failed attempts to right himself, Charles remembered that ferrets aren't bipedal and thanked the founders that no one had been watching, deciding to just let instinct guide him. After that, motion became incredibly easy and he fairly flew across the floor, scampering over piles of clothes and books as if they weren't even there. He jumped onto one of the Marauders' beds and tousled up the covers. Under the pillow, he found a silvery, fluid material that smelled like magic (a phenomenon he couldn't explain if he tried). This was the famous invisibility cloak. The one that would in the future lead a thirteen year old Harry Potter to throw mud at him and that, currently, the Marauders used to sneak about. He would have loved to steal it, but Black would probably lay the blame on Aries and Charles just didn't want to have to deal with another bout of animosity between the brunet and the Marauders - not to mention the pitiful grieving looks Aries would get whenever arguments broke out.

Huffing in an unfortunately high pitched, ferrety way, Charles hopped back onto the floor. Suddenly quite discontented to stay in the dorm, he scurried to the door. It was heavy - practically impossible for a ferret to move - but the one inch gap left ajar was more than wide enough for his little body to squeeze through and soon he was out and about.

The Gryffindors hanging out in their common room didn't even notice him as he ran silently along the base of the wall to a shadowy corner. Someone had left their bag there - a girl if the smell of perfume coming from inside were any indication - and he slipped inside, hiding under a book.

There was a half-finished bag of Berti Bott's Every Flavor Beans inside and Charles reached inside and took one - quite pleased that his new front feet actually worked well as hands, too; much better than the paws of a dog. The candy was the size of a large sandwich, but he stuffed it into his mouth whole and bit down. Recognizing immediately the taste of sardine, Charles prepared to spit it out, but a moment more and he realized it actually tasted rather good. The texture seemed a bit off from what his ferret-side would prefer; as soon as that thought entered, he decided to stop analyzing the experience as he really didn't want to know what sort of texture a ferret would like.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake horribly, shifting books fell on him and he scrambled to the top of the bag and peaked out.

Oh. He realized with would-be-blushing embarrassment that the bag had been picked up by its owner. They were now strolling down the halls of Hogwarts. More interestingly, the bag seemed to be owned by Lily Evans, and the red head was muttering absently to herself.

"Where is he? He knows we have to head the prefect meetings right before lunch every Sunday. He knows! I know he knows; he came to the last seven. Where is he. Probably out showing off or picking on Slytherins. Oh, that's not fair, he's been acting a lot better lately. Maybe he just forgot, that's it. I bet he forgot."

By the time she had finished deciding that James Potter - because who else would Evans be muttering about? - was indeed a decent human being, the two of them had arrived at the library.

What should have been the typical dull silence of a near abandoned study area was full of frighteningly interesting noises. Little things, like the sound of a book tipping over on its neighbors, made his head whip around to find the source. As soon as Lily dropped her bag - none to gently, either; thank goodness he was Ferret the Invincible - on the table, Charles scurried out and hopped onto the floor, running for the shadows under a bookshelf before he could be seen.

Oh and there were so many things to see here! And smell, oh the smells! How did he ever live without this sense of smell, how did he never notice how blind he was with nothing but a stupid human nose? He could smell not just that the many-months-old gum stuck to the underside of the bookshelf was cherry flavored, but also that the person to chew it had been male, and someone he knew. Charles was even able to tell that the last animal here had been a frog who had hopped through two days ago. He followed the trail of frog-scent until he got bored and moved on.

The ex-Slytherin continued to play like this for a long time, nibbling indiscriminately on any bits of food he could find - which he was sure would disgust himself if he were human, but to a ferret, a chocolate frog leg was a chocolate frog leg, discarded under a study table or no. He had come across a few more deposits of that cherry flavored gum, but was able to keep himself from tasting it by a firm reminder that, while the other food bits had only touched the ground, the gum had actually been in some human's disgusting mouth. He was sure he'd be quite grateful for this bit of logic later, when his stomach wasn't quite so empty.

"Peter, that's disgusting!" Charles hear Remus Lupin snap from very close. Suddenly, a chubby finger reached under the bookcase and stuck cherry flavored gum to the wood.

Moment of gratitude = now.

Shuddering at the thought of what he had been smelling - Peter was worse than Longbottom, and that was saying something! - Charles decided it was probably time to feed himself properly.

Now...how to do it...

...

He couldn't just transform, he'd have to be someplace private for that, and there weren't terribly many private places in a library.

"Come on, Moony," Black's voice drifted over to him, "enough studying. Let's get some dinner, eh?"

"Alright, alright," Lupin sighed, "I'm done anyway. Thank goodness, since we're going to busy tonight."

Potter shushed him, though it was clearly done through a smile. "You'll get us caught."

"No," Lupin said, also with a smile, "acting like you don't want to get caught, will get you caught. Anyway, let's go."

Charles ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and jumped into Lupin's bag just as he hoisted it on his shoulder. The werewolf's nose twitched and Charles willed him not to notice.

"Peter," scolded Lupin, "how many times have I asked you to wash after you transform? You smell like rodent."

"S-sorry Remus," Peter stammered. "Must've forgotten."

A few moments of jostling and swaying later, they arrived at the Great Hall. The noise and smells were almost overpowering, and it was all Charles could do to wait until the Marauders weren't looking before slipping onto the floor and eating the first dropped roll he could get his paws on. Bits of ham were next on the menu and he ate those with equal relish. Apparently, his ferret-stomach could take quite a bit more, proportionally, than his human stomach, because he was sure he had eaten at least a quarter of his body weight before settling, sated, in Remus' bag to wait.

He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, he was lying under several books at the bottom of the bag, which had just been tossed onto a bed.

"You got the cloak?"

"I've got the cloak. You sure he put his shoes in the musk before he left?"

"They steeped there all night, I checked when I woke up."

"Good, let's go check what our little friend gets up to in the evenings, shall we?"

"Let's."

The flurry of voices was punctuated by the creaky sound of the door opening. Charles was suddenly wide awake. He had to take several moments to untangle himself from books and bag, but managed to make it out of the door just before it shut. Ahead of him were three presences he could smell and hear, but not see, and a rat.

"Alright, Wormtail. You know what to do," came Potter's disembodied voice. The rat squeaked once, then turned and started sniffing the ground. He moved a few feet, sniffed, moved, sniffed, and moved again until Sirius finally snapped.

"We know he went out the bloody portrait hole, so start from there!" he hissed. The rat squeaked embarrassedly and darted down the rest of the stairs and through the common room, the other three Marauders following close, and Charles following them.

Once outside, Pettigrew started his sniff/move pattern again. It wasn't until they were almost to the seventh floor that Charles realized they must be after Aries, who had apparently gone to the Room of Requirement again.

"We'll wait here," Lupin said suddenly, stopping the strange procession. "You go on ahead until you find him, then come back and tell us. This slow moving is driving me crazy."

The others muttered agreement and Pettigrew squeaked and scurried off. Charles, careful to stay where he didn't think the humans could see him, followed a few feet behind until he was sure they were out of sight.

Now, Charles knew that Pettigrew was the traitor, had known since the summer before fifth year. He hadn't known that Aries knew until the welcoming feast, where the Gryffindor had nearly sent a death glare at someone he was supposed to have just met. He was therefore able to reason that Aries had probably become close to his godfather before the man's sudden death - something his mother had mentioned in passing with a face that could almost be called mournful.

Charles didn't know what the future would bring, where his loyalties would lie when he was finally free to be Draco Malfoy again, but he knew that, as Charles Higgins III, he counted Aries Hesuchazo as a friend, and he was nothing if not loyal to his friends.

Anyone who hurt them - past, present, or future - would pay.

As soon as they were in the shadows and sufficiently hidden, Charles scurried up so he was almost alongside the rat and tapped him on the shoulder with one hand-like paw.

Pettigrew stopped and looked over, startled, and Charles used the opportunity to rear back on his hind legs and deliver a punch any ferret could be proud of. The rat fell to the ground, unconscious.

In an instant, the redhead had un-transformed and drew his wand.

"Obliviate," he whispered, aiming the spell at the last fifteen minutes, then used a shaving charm to scribble a frowning face with it's tongue sticking out - a symbol granger had once drawn on his Transfiguration test when they'd had to grade each others' - on his back before banishing him back to his waiting friends.

Feeling highly self-satisfied, Charles stuck his hands in his pockets and strolled to the Room to see what Aries was up to.