The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Midnight Visitors

Midnight Visitors

Dear James,
Glad to hear you got to talk to Dumbledore about Snuffles and there's a way to fix it. I'm afraid mother's heard about the row the Resistance had with the Death Eaters on your property, though, and she refuses to let me leave home again 'til I'm on the Express. Frankly my father had to talk her into letting me and my sister go even to Hogwarts next term. There was talk of pulling us from school. You lot can come here if you like but you must not let her see Snuffles if you do as she's terrible afraid of The Grim and might not take kindly to Snuffles. I've got to go, it's dinner. See you when you come or else on the Express. If nothing else, we could always do the charm there! Tell Snuffles hello.
Peter

James scowled and Sirius let out a low whine and lay on the carpet sadly as Bubo fluttered her wings, recovering from the trip from the Pettigrew's house. She clicked her beak impatiently for James to fill her feed cup and ruffled while she waited. James tossed the letter from Peter down on the desk and got up, dumping a load of seeds into Bubo's cage. "Bloody cowardly git!" James grumbled, "He can't think it's exactly easy for us to walk out of here right now, with my mum freaking out over the Death Eaters, can he? Easier for him to sneak off than it is for us." James slammed the box of seed back down and Bubo squaked angrily.

Sirius sighed and put his head down between his paws and closed his eyes.

"I know you're sick of being a dog, and I'm sick of you being a dog - we can't go two whole months 'til we're on the Express," James said. "Look, I know you aren't going to like it but I think the only answer for us now is to ask Remus for help."

Sirius looked up quickly, his head rising up from the carpet and swinging no widely.

"Snuffles, it's the only way, unless you want to tell the grown-ups what we've done and --" James lowered his voice, "I don't think that's a very smart idea. I don't wanna go to Azkaban for this!"

Sirius stood up and started pacing.

James sighed, "It's the only option we've got. His house is a heck'uva lot closer than Peter's, we could sneak out without mum even knowing we're gone 'til we're back."

Sirius wanted to say no - he didn't want Remus knowing what was going on yet - but then again James was right. He couldn't go another two months and they couldn't tell any of the grown-ups what they'd done - correction, were doing. Sirius had no intentions to cease his attempts at becoming an animagus over a little hold up like this. Especially now that they knew the reversal. He fully intended to keep working at it until he'd perfected the art, which he'd wanted to do before telling Remus, but now -- He sat down and looked up at James.

James held out his palm, "What do you say? Do we go to see Remus?"

Sirius raised his paw and dropped it into James's outstretched hand.

Remus was asleep, curled up beneath the blankets on his bed, when there came a persistent clicking on his bedroom window. He groaned, wanting the clicking to stop, but to no avail. He rolled over in his bed to see what the noise was and was surprised to see Bubo, tapping at the glass with her beak. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and went over to wrench open the window frame. "Bubo?" he yawned, "What're you doing here at this -- this hour?" But Bubo didn't hop inside like she usually did when he opened the bedroom window... there was no note tied to her leg... instead, she turned about and flew down to the edge of the trees, to the spot that Remus always peered in his paranoia. He squinted across the pale blue of the grass.