Squib - In the Noble House of Black

11- Amato Animo Animato Animagus

July 1st, 1975

Maia, Sirius and James were going to meet up with Peter to camp that night so they could finish the animagi process.

"Is Remus not coming?" Maia asked, confused when only Peter was mentioned.

"No, he didn't do the process, but he will be coming over tomorrow morning so we can show him." Sirius responded quickly, almost like he had rehearsed it.

"Okay..." Maia honestly didn't even know if she wanted to know why they were doing this in the first place. Her job was just to make sure they didn't die.

They left a few hours before sunset, as the storm was rolling in. Maia went over the checklist with Sirius, the mandrake leaf with dew from a place that neither sunlight nor human feet touched in seven days (that was an interesting story of them venturing into the forbidden forest). That the mixture had been in a quiet dark place, and finally that every sunrise and sunset they had been speaking the incantation 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus'.

They set up two tents, one for the boys to share, and a small one for Maia. Inside the big tent, they had food out and nothing was organized. Outside they set up a campfire and used logs or stumps as seats.

"What animal do you think I will be?" Sirius asked the group.

"Probably something pitiful like a butterfly." James joked, Sirius glared at him.

"Butterflies are not pitiful, I quite like butterflies, they're small and pretty," Peter defended.

They didn't have more time to talk about what they suspected they were because they saw a flash of lightning and heard the sharp thunder crack.

"Alright boys, we have our vials," James took the lead, "Bottoms up!" They said in unison, downing their potions.

Quickly they each grabbed their wands and placed the tip against their hearts. "Amato Animo Animato Animagus," Each reacted differently after. Peter doubled over and looked like he was about to blackout. James seemed in shock as he dropped his wand and felt a second heartbeat. Sirius smiled through the pain as his form appeared first in his mind before it took him over.

Maia grabbed their wands for safe keeping as the boys before her turned into animals. Prongs spouted from James' head and he shifted into an elegant stag. The stag's coat was a reddish brown and had squares around the stag's eyes due to his glasses that a wild deer would not have. Peter shrunk, almost disappearing under the grass they were standing on, but Maia could see the form of a rather large rat with pointed ears and a long worm-like tail.

The one that surprised her was Sirius. Because where Sirius had stood was a large dog with a shaggy black coat but the same grey eyes that belonged to his human form. The dog was exactly how she pictured her fictional character, Snuffles. Sirius had taken the form the creature they both wished was real.

"Snuffles," Maia whispered as Sirius padded over to her and she stroked his fur back. He responded by nuzzling his head between her palms. After they broke away, Sirius decided to run right into James, but the stag didn't get knocked over. Instead they got into a weird dog-stag wrestling match.

Maia went to find Peter in the brush and picked him up so he wouldn't get lost while getting used to his form. She placed him on a nearby rock and he began to run around chasing his tail. When Sirius and James were finished wrestling Sirius bagan doing the same as James cocked his head to the side looking at Maia like "these two are idiots". Maia responded by raising an eyebrow "so are you".

When the sun started to dip behind the hill and the lights were fading, Maia called the three over so they could try to return back to humans. "Just visualize yourself as human and concentrate on that," Maia helped guide.