The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Snuffles

Snuffles

The main problem with Sirius having managed to fully transform to his animagus form was that nobody knew how to make him turn back. Sirius himself couldn't seem to do it, and James couldn't help but think that it had something to do with the fact that, as a dog, he couldn't really use his wand. They stuck the wand in Sirius's teeth so he could carry it like a stick and he awkwardly tried at tapping himself with it but every time he tried all he managed to do was poke himself in the side with it, or else get distracted by his own tail and end up spinning in circles.

"Will you stay focused, you ruddy mutt?!" James demanded one of the times that Sirius ended up running circles after his own behind.

Peter sat perched on one of the fallen logs they'd sat on around the fire and watched as James tried saying the spell himself to turn Sirius back to a human, but with no results. Sirius whimpered and laid down on the leaves, setting his head on his paws sadly. James sat down and rubbed his forehead. "Bloody hell," he murmured, "I dunno what to do. My parents are expecting us back for dinner tonight. If we're even a minute late, my mum's going to come out here like the hounds of war..." He sighed, looking at Sirius, who had looked up at the wordhound.

Peter shook his head, "I knew we should've done this with Remus or at the school or not at all or something," he said. "None of us know what we're doing and one stupid book isn't enough to tell us, either. This was utterly reckless and idiotic. We were mad for trying this."

James sighed. "I know that, but we did, and now we've got to figure out what to do. I can't bring Sirius home like this!"

"Maybe your dad would know what to do - you said he's really smart and stuff, maybe he knows what spell would help Sirius?" Peter suggested.

"That would take telling him what we've done," said James.

Sirius stood up and put his head on James's knee.

"Stop it, I know you wanna be a human again, mate, but I dunno what to do about it!" He looked at the big black dog's shaggy fur and sighed and scratched behind his ears, making Sirius kick his legs with glee. James looked at Peter. "This is really odd if you think about the fact that it's Sirius I'm scratching."

Peter nodded.

James let his hand drop away from Sirius's ears. "We gotta get this fixed - pronto," he said. "Alright, here's an idea. We sneak you off to the Knight Bus out front and have them take you back to Diagon Alley to meet up with your mother. I'll tell my mum that you got sick from too many marshmallows or something and Sirius's taken you home early and I've just finished packing up and I found this dog and he's followed me home. My mum'll be so busy gushing over how cute he is --"

"Is he, though?" Peter interrupted.

Sirius growled at him.

"Sorry, I'm just saying, you could do with a shampoo - you're rather like Severus Snape at the moment, mate," Peter said, holding up his palms.

James laughed, "It's true, mate, you are a big mangy. Anyways, my mum won't notice all that. She's far too gaa-gaa over dogs. She'll be all busy talking about how adorable he is and want to help the poor homeless pup and feeding him to fatten him up and all that, and I'll find a way to mention it to my dad and see if he knows anything about animaguses --"

"Animagi," Peter corrected.

"-- and if he knows how to make him back into a human." James finished, ignoring Peter's correction.