Daddy’s Boy

Animagi

They spent Christmas together, once again visiting the castle in France, where they could feel really on vacation, as it was so different than their normal lodging. Sirius, Remus and their girlfriends joined them as well. It was Christmas morning, after opening the presents, when Harry remembered the toe-less rat. "You know, Ron's pet rat is missing a toe. I thought it was curious. I think one of you had also told us something about a missing toe, but I can't remember what it was."

Sirius paled at once. "A rat, you say? Which toe is absent?"

"On one of the front paws. I don't remember which one."

Sirius thought for a moment. "Well, how would you like a nice doggy to accompany you back to school?"

Hermione frowned, trying to remember everything about a rat and a toe... She suddenly smiled brightly. "You believe that rat to be Peter the traitor, don't you?"

"Sure. Do you know how long they have that rat?"

"Since Bill started Hogwarts, that would be..."

"Eleven years," Sirius said gravely.

Hermione frowned once again. "He knew you in your dog form, didn't he?"

"Of course. We all knew each other's animagus form."

"Then, good doggy must not come to the train with us."

"Why not?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry explained. "If he recognizes you before we can catch him, he'll try to escape. We must set the trap for him in a way to assure that he would not be able to escape."

Remus didn't say anything. Only much later he asked them all to come to the study.

"I have a plan," he told the others.

With Hermione's help, and a bit of Harry's as well, they tweaked the plan until they were all satisfied with it.

"We also need a backup plan," Hermione reminded the boys, "in case something goes wrong with the main one."

It took them most of the rest of the vacation to come with a suitable backup plan, or a set of plans, that covered every aspect of the main plan that could go wrong. Hermione made sure that Harry knew by heart his part in any of the plans. Still, whatever plan they would finally use, Harry and Hermione had the main roles.

The youngsters used their winter vacation not only for making plans to capture the rat but also for finding a way to deal with a Basilisk, if one was still hiding behind that movable sink. They found that the crowing of the rooster was deadly to that monster, although it would probably take more than a single rooster crow to kill one, yet there was nothing to indicate that it couldn't be done with a recording. Harry tried to find some other sounds that had magical effects and eventually found that a certain birdsong could make some magical plants sprout flowers. A short visit at a music shop gave them several recordings of that bird, along with rooster crows, and Remus found it a suitable challenge to turn them into magical equivalents that could work at Hogwarts.

They visited Neville on the last day of vacation and tried the bird recording on the plant he had in the greenhouse. The effect was immediate.

A few days after returning to school, Kitty became a regular visitor in the boys' bedroom, staying some times for most of the night as well. "Why are you suddenly so interested in cats?" Ron complained. His rat seemed quite frightened by the Kneazle, despite it being relatively small. Whenever Kitty came, Scabbers would hide in Ron's bed and refuse to get out many hours after even Harry's enhanced senses couldn't detect her smell.

It was all according to the plan, though. That weekend, Kitty came into the bedroom soon after breakfast. Ron tried to "rescue" his pet a few times, yet the rat dug into Ron's sheets and even bit his finger, making Ron abandon his efforts. "Well, if the cat eats you, it's your fault," he said furiously to the rat and left the room, with only Harry still there.

It was something Harry had practised during the vacation until he knew it perfectly. He cast wandlessly, creating a containment ward and a magic suppressor, both engulfing Ron's bed from all directions. He made sure to include the bottom of the bed, so that even if the rat managed to burrow its way through the mattress, it would not be able to escape.

Just to be on the safe side, he added a sound proofing ward which assured that no sound would reach the rat. Hermione then cast several more spells to enhance and fortify what Harry had done. She returned to her Kitty form as soon as she finished casting and found a comfortable perch on Harry's bed.

After a short mirror-call, both Sirius and Remus apparated to Hogwarts' gates and soon came into the Gryffindor common room, collecting Minerva on their way.

"What are you up to now?" the strict teacher asked them.

"A marauder never tells," Sirius replied.

"We just need to help Justice do its work," Remus told her.

Whatever they had in mind, she knew it was something important, as both looked too serious for it to be a mere prank. She followed them to the second year boys' dorm, where Harry and Hermione were waiting.

"Do you know the spell to force an animagus back to his human form?" Remus asked her, as Sirius turned into a dog.

"Of course I do," Minerva said, just as the dog pulled one of the blankets and hid under it. She took her wand and pointed it at the blanket, saying a somewhat long spell. It made the dog turn into Sirius again, although his head was still covered by the blanket.

"Do you mind casting that spell on this bed?" Remus asked.

She looked a bit confused. "Why would..."

"Just do it. You'll see for yourself."

A moment later, the blanket rose, revealing a fat man under it. Before his head was uncovered, Hermione cast a quick glamour charm on both Sirius and Remus, making their colours and their facial features change. Harry removed the silencing spell.

"Peter?! I thought you were dead!" Minerva said, looking very surprised.

Peter didn't even answer. He tried to reach into his robes and grab his wand, but a quick "Incarcerous" cast by Harry made him unable to do anything. Harry and Hermione removed the wards and added some more binding on Peter. Minerva enhanced it with a spell to disable animagus transformation.

Harry didn't let himself think of what that pitiable excuse for a man meant for him. He was just glad to let the adults handle the rest of the affair, with Sirius using his auror position to take Peter into custody and bring him to the Ministry's holding cells for interrogation under veritaserum.

The whole affair was kept secret. Minerva made sure that it would not reach Dumbledore prematurely and Sirius, using his cousin's legal advice, was able to make it top secret at the Ministry, unknown even to the minister.

Ron was very surprised when told that his rat was actually a runaway criminal. Sirius made sure to send him a new owl as a compensation for his rat, and Ron seemed satisfied with that, never giving the rat any more thought.

Although quite happy with his animagus form as Snow, Harry was starting to feel that there was another form waiting to be acknowledged inside him. He first ignored it, having other things in his mind, but as time passed, he felt like he should really try to do something about it. He sounded his concerns to Hermione, as usual. "I sometimes feel as if I need to run fast, on four limbs, yet I only have two legs as either Harry or Snow. Can you understand what I mean?"

Hermione seemed a bit surprised. "I also feel like there's another animal inside, just waiting to come out. It has four limbs, but it's not Kitty, and it lately started nagging to get out. I wonder what it is."

"Let's check the library for books about animals. I'm sure we can find something." Harry felt a bit smug to beat Hermione at suggesting the library. It didn't happen very often. This was actually the first time it did.

They spent two afternoons scanning all the books about magical creatures. The only one that made them feel anything at all was the werewolf, but this was nothing compared to how they had reacted when they recognized their first animagus form.

"Maybe it's not a magical creature. I'm sure we can find something about non-magical ones too," Hermione suggested.

They only found two such books. One dealt mainly with animals that could fly or swim. None stirred any emotions. The other was a kind of history, defining the origins of most house pets and how they differed from their wild cousins. Harry was quite doubtful it would be any good, but there was nothing else for them to check.

"This dog is cute," Hermione said, pointing at a small poodle, "but I don't think it's my form."

"Neither is it mine," Harry said.

Turning the page, they saw pictures of the bigger kinds of dogs, along with their original species – the wolf. This seemed to stir something inside them. Without uttering a word they left the library and found an unused class. Hermione locked and silenced it. They then moved each to a different corner, yet still looking at each other.

The change came almost immediately. Harry felt his body change just as he saw Hermione's form change. A short while later, there were two large wolves standing in the room. The male one was light grey, yet its head was almost black, as were its paws. His eyes stayed green. The other was brownish grey, turning brown at the head, with a bushy tail and deep chocolate eyes. Both looked at each other, as if studying their forms, before approaching and rubbing lovingly against each other. They then started smelling each other attentively from head to tail, the way dogs do sometimes. Once both were satisfied, they morphed back to their human form, both blushing madly.

"I..." Harry started reluctantly, but Hermione put a finger on his lips.

"Not now. We'll talk about this some other time. Maybe during our summer vacation."

Harry had never seen wolves in heat, but there were more than enough stray dogs to show him what could be expected. He felt like he almost acted the same way, yet he knew they were not ready for that yet, although they would be, eventually, in both human and wolf forms. He simply hugged his mate. "You know that I love you, don't you?"

She snuggled back to him. "Of course I do, and I love you too."

There was soon a rumour going through Hogwarts. A pair of wolves who looked quite playful with each other could often be spotted near the edge of the forest, usually very late at night. Those who saw them told that the two wolves were just chasing each other around or seemed to compete for speed. They seemed quite cute, yet nobody dared approach them, as they were much larger than most shepherd dogs and their teeth seemed sharper than knives. Nobody was willing to risk being bitten.

Harry and Hermione heard the rumour as well. "I saw them," he said. "The female seemed quite ruthless. I wouldn't like to anger her."

Hermione just smiled sweetly. "She also seems very fierce at protecting her male, and he seems just as fierce at protecting her."

Only Ron seemed of a different opinion. "They're just stupid dogs. Give them a piece of meat and they forget everything."

Harry believed that Ron was only assigning to the wolves what he knew about himself.