Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(51) Dog Days

The World Cup incident had been the talk of the whole Wizarding community for quite some time. What the ministry had let out was that the House Elf of Bartemius Crouch, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was found with a stolen wand. Not just any wand, but one that belonged to no other than Harry Potter—with the last spell being the one used to evoke the Death Eater's mark.

Ofcourse no one could hardly believe that a house elf had the initiative to do it all on it's own—Jane, Remus and Sirius have been particularly suspicious about that, but kept their discussions about it in discretion so Florence wouldn't have to worry about it too much.

The days had passed by faster because of this, and soon Jane found herself doing school shopping with Florence at Diagon Alley again. Both of them made their way in and out of the shops quickly, wanting to get home sooner.

"Did we get everything on your list, dear?" she asked, carrying a pile of books in her arms, as did Florence. With slight struggle, Florence managed to reach into her pocket to pull out the folded checklist, her eyes skimming through the writing.

"Uh, I just need a few rolls of parchment and new Quidditch gloves—"

"Quidditch gloves? Didn't you buy a pair last time we came here?" she frowned.

"Well yeah," Florence said sheepishly, "But that was a year ago. I need a new one."

"Fine," Jane huffed, "A few rolls of parchment and a quick stop at Quidditch Quality Supplies, and then we're going home. Alright?"

Florence grinned, "Sounds like a plan."

Everything was going as planned, until—much to Jane's utter horror—a familiar looking black dog came squeezing through the crowd. Florence had been momentarily shocked—nearly dropping her books, before the two followed it to wherever it was going.

"Sirius!" Jane hissed as soon as they were out of prying eyes, the black dog shifting to it's obvious human form. Sirius simply batted his eyes at her, a grin on his face, "Ah, Jane! What were the odds of me seeing you here on this busy day?"

"You nitwit!" said Jane, her arms crossed over her chest in obvious displeasure, "Dumbledore told you to stay home! What if someone saw you?!"

"Well," he began cheekily. Florence was highly amused in the situation, however kept it to herself for the sake of her mum who was already stressing out.

"They obviously won't see me, Jane, because I—" he shifted into the big black dog, then shifted back to human form again, "—obviously have the greatest disguise in the world!"

"Sirius!" she scolded again, frowning, "Stop doing that! And shift back into your animagus form, someone might see you."

"Now, now, all I'm doing is trying to make your sanity look good. It would be better for them to catch you talking to a escaped criminal rather than a large, unresponsive dog, right?"

"Please," sighed Jane, rubbing at her temples in distress, "Let's just go home."

"But it's boring there," he whined, as if momentarily forgetting that he was a fully grown man instead of a still-growing teenager. "Moony's an awful killjoy. I want to go somewhere, even for a little while. Please." he begged.

"Fine," said Jane, sounding defeated. "But only for awhile," she said, "And stay in your animagus form."

Sirius happily agreed, and the black dog appeared once more, now in the company of mother and daughter.