"ℰ𝓂𝓅𝓉𝓎 𝒞𝒽𝒶𝒾𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓉 ℰ𝓂𝓅𝓉𝓎 𝒯𝒶𝒷𝓁ℯ𝓈" － ℒℯ𝓈 ℳ𝒾𝓈ℯ́𝓇𝒶𝒷𝓁ℯ𝓈

March 27th, 1994

     "Is rescheduling the lunar cycle possible, Moony?" Sirius sighed as he curled his legs underneath him where he was sitting on the couch in Remus Lupin's office.

     Remus merely raised an eyebrow in response, face worn with the stress of the moon creeping closer and closer to full. His bones felt brittle inside him, cracking and popping at every little movement.

     "Did... you just ask me to reschedule when I become a werewolf?" He asked dubiously.

     Sirius huffed, raking his fingers through his dark hair as he grumbled, "I want this day to be over."

     "The moon's in about an hour or so," Nikki said softly as she sat down on the couch as well. "The day's almost over. And we'll be dogs for the rest of it."

     Her lips turned down, knowing what was causing Sirius to be downtrodden and sullen.

It was James Potter's birthday.

Nikki curled herself into Sirius' side, resting her head on his shoulder as her fingers lightly traced patterns on the back of his hand.

His mouth quirked up into a minuscule smile, twisting back into a neutral expression as if showing emotion was a weakness that he couldn't seem to suppress.

'One of the many teachings in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black,' Sirius thought wryly.

     "...Remember when James got detention for starting a fistfight in the middle of the corridor outside Defense Against the Dark Arts in March of our sixth year?" Remus randomly asked, his fingers rubbing at his temples in an effort to stave off the headache that he knew was just going to get worse.

     Sirius snorted. "Minnie gave him a three foot long Transfiguration essay... on a niche topic that James had already researched to death for fun. My favorite reason why one of us got detention."

     March 3rd, 1977 was a shit day for Sirius. Though the fistfight had brightened it a bit. If he closed his eyes, he could just hear the sound of James Fleamont Potter's voice from the day of the infamous fistfight between his best friend — no, his brother — and Orion Black.

     "This is one of — if not the — worst idea that Dumbledore has ever had," James Potter scoffed as his hazel eyes remained fixed on his best friend, his brother-in-all-but-blood, as they made their way to their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.

     Lily Evans frowned. "Regardless of... the Black Family..." she delicately side-stepped a conversation about just why the Black Family's arrival at Hogwarts was causing Sirius' already limited grasp on his temper to loosen, "scheduling Parent Day and Alumni Return Day on the same day is a logistical nightmare."

     "Lily! Sirius!" A voice called from behind the group, Sirius spinning on his heel and facing his younger brother in the blink of an eye. "I need a bit of help with Charms—"

     Sirius snorted, rolling his eyes as he stretched out his arm to ruffle his younger brother's hair. Regulus stepped backwards, Sirius' eyebrows knitting together in bewilderment.

     "No you don't," Sirius replied, scoffing slightly. "Reg, you're one of the smartest in your year; what, did you get an E instead of an O on a singular essay?"

     Regulus huffed out an exasperated breath. "I don't quite understand the concept of the Bombardment Charm." The last two words were stressed intensely. "Ustjay ayplay alongyay!"

     Sirius' eyes widened as he realized what was going on.

"Oh."

Regulus and Sirius had learned Pig Latin when they were children, a secret language that only they and Andromeda knew. Their older cousin taught them patiently, and the three were able to insult the members of their distinguished family and family friends — well, allies was a better word; the Black Family didn't do friends — without getting in trouble.

Walburga and Orion were there. For Parent Day.

Sirius swore violently under his breath, raking his fingers through his shoulder-length dark hair.

"Red," he murmured to Lily, "you might have to bullshit your way through a discussion about Bombardment Charms to avoid getting bombarded by something — someone — worse."

Lily nodded imperceptibly, already beginning to talk with Regulus over the fourth year charm in a kind voice. "Well, what about the Bombardment Charm do you need help with, Regul—"

"Regulus Arcturus."

     At the sound of Orion Black's voice, Sirius' posture immediately improved, his back ramrod straight. His grey eyes darkened, barriers slamming down.

     Lily's emerald green eyes narrowed, her hand resting gently on Sirius' forearm.

     In all honesty, she knew that she couldn't hold Sirius back if he wanted to start a fight. Lily Evans was only five-three, and height was one of the only good things that Sirius' genetics had lent him.

     He stood at six-four. A faint smirk flickered across Sirius' face as he realized that his father — no, not his father anymore; Fleamont Potter was his father — didn't have the height advantage anymore.

     "Yes, Father?" Regulus responded, eyes the color of liquid silver darting from the imposing figure that his father cut to the imperious and lofty stare of Walburga Black behind her husband. "Mother?"

     "What are you doing, Regulus Arcturus?" Walburga's voice rang out, cracking over their ears with a force as sharp as a knife blade.

Regulus held his head high, though he spun the Black Heir ring on his right ring finger around and around behind his back.

Sirius swallowed sharply.

"I'm getting assistance with Charms," Regulus placidly explained. "Lily is one of the smartest kids at Hogwarts."

"You've got that fucking right," Marlene McKinnon grumbled as her sapphire blue eyes pierced into Walburga and Orion's grey eyes.

"And Sirius is my brother and really good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Transfiguration," Regulus continued.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Asyay uchmay asyay Iyay appreciateyay ouyay aggingbray aboutyay emay, Iyay eallyray inkthay atthay ouyay ouldshay avoidyay aisingpray emay."

"How many languages do you know?" Remus Lupin huffed, exasperated.

"English, French, Italian, Russian, Latin, Spanish, and Pig Latin," Sirius replied, scoffing afterwards to show just how much he despised the list.

     "If you need help with a class, then find someone in your House," Orion Black started, his voice cool and steady as if he were merely discussing the weather, "who isn't a Mudblood or a blood traitor. Because I don't want to see you talking to them ever again, and you have no brother. Remember that. Do you understand, Regul-?"

     His disparaging speech was cut off from the whirlwind of James Potter leaping towards him, his fist coming around in a right hook impacting the older man's jaw.

     "James!" Lily Evans exclaimed, her voice pitching higher in nervousness.

     Remus, Peter, and Sirius couldn't believe it. Their eyes took in the scene, unable to truly believe that James Fleamont Potter, sunshine bottled and stored in a person's body, had started a fist fight.

     Hexing?

     Yeah, made sense. The amount of schoolyard duels the Marauders had gotten into with Lucius Malfoy's little gang spoke to that.

     Sirius throwing a punch?

     It had happened before, usually the weeks before and after he had to go back home to 12 Grimmauld Place.

     James Fleamont Potter, eternal optimist, starting a brawl by launching himself at his opponent?

     This was uncharted territory they were in.

     But James would be damned if he had to listen to one more word of Orion Black's prejudiced bullshit disguised with fancy words and a smug half-smirk.

     Internally, James preened at being the one to punch that infernal look off of Orion's face.

     "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" Marlene chanted, flipping her golden blonde hair over her shoulders as she tilted her head back towards the ceiling and began to laugh.

     Sirius snickered, fingers absentmindedly twisting a strand of Nikki's ginger waves between them. He swore that he could sit there and card his fingers through her hair until the end of time, if she let him.

Remus' fists clenched as he gritted his teeth against the pain. His bones cracked, snapping and reforming into the form of a werewolf.

     Two shaggy black dogs replaced Nikki and Sirius on the worn couch, the bigger dog's head resting on top of hers.

     The full moon passed slowly, the gleaming silver rays peeking through the curtained windows of Remus' office.

     Sirius, Nikki, and Remus curled up together, a mass of fur and paws as they waited it out.

     All of them were exhausted as the moon began to set, Sirius and Nikki transforming back into their human forms as soon as Remus had become human again.

     The professor was curled into the fetal position, tucking his chin into his knees as he tried to make himself as small as possible.

     Sirius dragged his hand down the side of his face, trying to spark up enough energy to get back to Gryffindor Tower and crash for a day. "Grab the blanket?"

     Working together, Sirius and Nikki managed to get Remus into a halfway decent sleeping position on the couch, blanket pulled all the way up to his chin.

     Sirius didn't remember walking back to Gryffindor Tower, his mind a foggy daze even as a dog. He had the slightest bit of wherewithal to pull the covers back before collapsing onto the bed, his arm automatically moving to drape loosely over Nikki's waist as she curled up next to him.

     He mumbled an incoherent "I love you," fighting back the blackness that encroached on the edges of his vision so that he could hear her murmur the words back before he gave into his body's frenzied demand for sleep.

     When the sun shone brightly in the sky and Hogwarts began to wake up, Nikki was faced with the challenge of untangling herself from Sirius, sliding carefully out from under the covers. Her knuckles brushed against his stubbled cheek, lips curving into a soft smile as he subconsciously pressed his head into her touch.

     Sirius was still asleep when she came back from classes, ditching her school uniform for a Molly Weasley knitted jumper and joggers. She slipped back into her bed, stretching her legs out and leaning to grab a book to read off of her bedside table.

     Almost as if he knew she had come back to him, though Sirius was completely dead to the world the day after full moon night, he ended up nestling his head in her lap. His breathing was steady, a constant rhythm that was unusual for him due to the terrors that plagued his mind.

     Nikki propped her book up against his head, beginning to read it as her mind began to wander from the ever-increasing homework load and serious situation that she had found herself entangled in.

Her hand ran through his dark hair, untangling it with a steady, practiced hand. It was a moment of calm in the ocean of stress that had enveloped them all.

Ron Weasley barged into her room, kicking the door closed behind him with his foot.

"WHAT THE—" Nikki yelped, cutting herself off as she stared blankly at her youngest brother. Her fingers slipped from their easy tempo, accidentally yanking on the strands of hair curled between her fingertips.

"Ow!" Sirius huffed, cracking his grey eyes open. "Are you trying to make me bald?"

Nikki coughed awkwardly, chewing on her lower lip.

"I bloody knew it!" Ron exclaimed, pumping his fist excitedly.

Sirius jolted upwards, head snapping around to look at Ron, his eyes flashing with pure, unadulterated panic.

"So... what's the deal with the whole mass murderer thing?" Ron said, his voice blunt and insensitive. "Because I'm pretty sure Nic has good taste."

"...Well, this should be fun... you want to destroy his childhood innocence or should I?" Sirius murmured dryly, running his fingers through his hair as he sighed.

"Start at the beginning," Nikki replied. "Last year, I accidentally time-traveled all the way back to 1976, got stuck there because of a broken time turner, and... well, you can probably guess the rest." She took in a deep breath of air, anxiously fiddling with her hands. "And... bloody hell, there's no good way to phrase this... but... Scabbers—"

"Your pet rat's Peter Pettigrew," Sirius interrupted flatly, face hardening as his eyes — twin smolders of ash from a dying fire — narrowed at the name of one of his former best friends. "Who framed me for everything."

"Sirius!"

Ron's jaw dropped. "I-I did not know that one..."

"How'd you know that your sister was hiding me, anyway?" Sirius asked, eyes searching the fourteen year old's face curiously.

"You don't act like a regular dog," Ron shrugged. "It was pretty obvious after Valentine's Day. Probably could have pieced it together from a dog getting the exact kind of chocolate that Harry mentioned in Hogsmeade."

Nikki buried her head in her hands, groaning. Sirius shifted sheepishly on the bed.

"....Whoops?"

"You're taking this... rather well..." Nikki noted, eyebrows furrowing. "I expected the explosion."

"Harry's been acting weird for months," Ron replied, rolling his eyes. "It just clicks. I'm not going to snitch or anything; don't worry."

His eyes glimmered with mischief. "Just... don't tell Harry? Makes things fair between us; he kept him knowing from me and I'll keep me knowing from him!"

And with those closing words, Ronald Bilius Weasley casually left Nikki's dormitory, his hands stuffed easily in his pockets as if he hadn't just been talking with an escaped prisoner from Azkaban.

(Ron knew that without a shred of doubt that he would fight Sirius Black for Nikki, if it came down to it. Nikki was his older sister; it was engrained deep in his soul to defend her honor.)

A feeling of dread twisted its cold fingers deep in Nikki's gut. She felt as if they were all careening towards a precipice with each day that passed, every breath.

Nicole Muriel Weasley knew, with one hundred percent certainty, if they didn't come up with a feasible plan to find Scab-Peter soon that Sirius would force a plan through.

So they needed to catch a bloody rat. And quick.

Word Count: 2,343