The Pureblood Princess | Sirius Black

|17| EXPECTO PATRONUM

When Adelaide and the rest of the Marauders returned to the castle after Christmas holidays, they quickly went back to work on perfecting the Patronus charm and the Marauders Map.

The Marauders Map now showed all 7 known secret passages out of the castle as well as all the other tidbits of information that they had accumulated. More importantly, however, Adelaide and Sirius had found a charm that would allow them to see the whereabouts of everyone in the castle! The charm was tricky however, and Adelaide would need to be the one to cast it, considering charms (bar the Patronus) were sort of her thing.

As for the Patronus Charm, they were all making some great headway. Sirius had produced a nearly corporeal Patronus of his shaggy dog, James had cast something that resembled antlers, Peter produced something that looked a lot like a worm, and Remus swore he saw the face of a wolf in his silver wispies and declined to take part in the project anymore.

This left Adelaide without the faintest idea of what her Patronus would take the form of. As she sat in the boys dorm in early February, filled with pure curiosity, she felt more determined than ever to cast the stupid spell.

"Ads. I bet you 10 sickles it's a cat." Sirius said.

"You hate cats." She responded.

"Exactly." He smirked. Adelaide whacked him upside the head. "Ouch!"

"You had that one coming, Mate," James shrugged.

"I refuse to be a cat." Adelaide proclaimed stubbornly.

"You don't really have much of a choice Ads." Remus said with an amused smile. "Unless you fall in love with someone that is..."

"What?" She asked confused.

"Well erm.. strong feelings can influence what form it takes. So, say your Patronus is a cat, and then you fall in love with.. oh I dunno someone whose Patronus is a turtle or something, then yours could change to a turtle as well... or theirs could turn into a cat... not sure how it works exactly." Remus explained.

"Huh, interesting. So let's say, theoretically, my Patronus is a cat. If by some tragic twist of fate Sirius falls for me, his could turn into a cat too?" Adelaide questioned with a wide smirk. Sirius's horrified face paled at the thought. Adelaide then began laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face.

"y-your face!" she said gasping for breath between laughs, "It was priceless!" She cackled for roughly 10 more minutes, much to Sirius's chagrin.

* * *

It was a particularly rainy Saturday evening in mid-march and the group of five had barricaded themselves in the boys dorm for a majority of the day. They briefly left to prank Snivellus, charming his hair bubblegum pink, but soon returned to their work on the Patronus Charm.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Sirius said. At that moment a bright luminescent form of a shaggy dog ran around him and through the others. They were mesmerized. He was the first to cast a corporeal Patronus... at only 13 years old.

"Okay! I want to go now!" James exclaimed. Just like Sirius, he said the incantation, waving his wand in the proper movements and from it came the bright figure of a rather large stag, with its head held high, walking confidently around the room.

"Hey buddy, watch the prongs!" Adelaide laughed as the silvery white stags antlers wafted through her face.

"Prongs?" Sirius said, tilting his head to the side. "I like it."

"huh?" questioned Adelaide.

"Prongs! That's James's new nickname!" Sirius said happily. James shrugged with a smile then looked back at the majestic stag.

"Addy! You need to try!" James said excitedly.

"Umm... Why don't we let Peter go next." She suggested, sending a smile to the blonde boy. "You'll do great Pete!" she said reassuringly to the boy.

"oh alright," Peter said putting down his chocolate frogs and standing up to cast the charm. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he said loudly with a smile, recalling his happiest memory.

A small rat with a long hairless tail scurried through the air.

"Oh! It wasn't a worm after all! It was a tail!" Remus exclaimed, startlingly Peter and making the rat disappear.

James snorted. "a wormtail..." he said cheekily. A moment later his eyes lit up. "WORMTAIL!" he shouted. "THAT'S YOUR NAME NOW!" James was now jumping up and down excitedly, grinning and pointing at Peter, who didn't seem to be all that fond of the name.

"umm.. I guess that works," He said smiling at the excited messy haired boy.

"Okay Addy, it's your time to shine!" Sirius said to the small platinum blonde girl.

Adelaide stood raising her wand. She thought back to the face Sirius made when she told him his patronus could turn into a cat, smiling involuntarily at the memory, opened her eyes and said the incantation.

"I KNEW IT!! I KNEW IT! I TOTALY CALLED IT!" Shrieked Sirius as the others cheered.

Adelaide looked with a face of pure joy as a large fluffy Norwegian Forest Cat lazily sauntered between the boys.

"Aww look at the little tufts on its ears!" Remus gushed as the cat moved closer to him.

"TUFTS!" Sirius screamed, ruining Adelaide's focus. "THAT'S YOUR NICKNAME!"

"uuuraggghhh! Can you please stop screaming you Padfooted Idiot!!!" Adelaide said grumpily.

"Padfoot?" Peter questioned.

"Dogs have those little pads on their feet." Adelaide informed him quickly, then turning back to glare at the annoying curly haired boy.

"PADFOOT!" James bellowed.

"Not you too! Please you're giving me a headache!" Adelaide whined.

"No! That's Sirius's nickname!" James said happily as Adelaide rolled her eyes and Sirius grinned.

"What about Remus?" asked Peter.

"Oh that's easy." Sirius said with a smirk, "Moony. You know because of the whole moon thing."

Remus put on his signature scrunched up thinking face. "I suppose it'll do." he said finally.

*

"Excuse me Tufts, could you please pass the broccoli?" James said obnoxiously from across the table at dinner the next night.

"Why yes of course my deer prongs!" she replied with a smirk, passing the aforementioned broccoli. Sirius walked up to the group, sitting beside James and in front of Adelaide.

"Oh Padfoot! Lovely of you to join us!" Adelaide said.

"Oh would you all give it a rest!" Remus said grumpily.

"Moody moony...." Sirius said under his breath.

"Stop calling me that in public!" Remus scolded. He was touchy about talking about anything werewolf related in public.

"Cheer up mate! At least they don't call you Wormtail..." Peter said as Mary McDonald giggled beside him.