Promise Me

Two Dogs, a Broken Nose, and the Biggest Secret of her Life

One full moon had passed since the Marauders had successfully changed into Animagus for the first time. James had turned into a very large, and very awkward stag. Sirius and Valerie had both turned into very large dogs. Sirius was a rather fluffy looking black mutt, while Valerie was a sleek Malinois. Peter had turned into a small and slightly mangy looking rat.

In order to maintain cover on the fact that they were now unregistered Animagus, they all had come up with nicknames for themselves in their animal forms. Prongs, Wormtail, and Moony were thus coined. A problem arose, however, when Valerie came up with the name Padfoot. Sirius claimed the name fit him better. Valerie was furious and kept fighting him about it.
"Sirius, — " Valerie began.
"For the last time, the name Padfoot is taken. By me. Why don't we just call you Princess, you're clearly so used to getting your own way, anyways." Sirius shot at Valerie.
"Sirius Black you shut your mouth this second," she had never looked so angry in her life. "You've gone too far this time."
"Oh, hit a nerve did I?" Sirius taunted. "I stand by what I said. You are privileged, your parents are rich, you get whatever you want, and you've never had a hard day in your life," he sneered, "Sounds like a princess to me."
Valerie morphed suddenly into a very large Belgian Malinois. Sirius followed suit and shifted into a fluffy black dog. Valerie bared her teeth and let out a low growl. Sirius snapped at her nose in response. Like a bullet from a gun, Valerie sprang forward and locked her jaws around Sirius's neck. After letting out a sharp bark, Sirius disentangled himself from Valerie's teeth. He stood up and took off out of the open common room door. James and Remus, having just come through the door, looked around wildly.
"What in the hell is going on?" James asked Peter, who was sitting on the couch looking frightened. "You were supposed to make sure something like that didn't happen! They have been at each other's necks all week."
Meanwhile, in the halls, Valerie was hot on Sirius's heels. By the time the dogs had reached the entry hall, Valerie managed to grasp one of his legs in her mouth and she bit down, hard. Sirius let out an earsplitting yelp. Valerie jumped on top of him and pinned him down. Just as she was about to take a chunk out of his left ear, she heard someone coming towards them.
"What on earth..." Professor Slughorn said as he rounded the corner and saw the two dogs fighting. "Go on! Get! You don't belong in the castle," The professor shooed the dogs out of the nearby door, and walked away muttering to himself.
When Slughorn was safely out of earshot, Valerie and Sirius changed back into their human forms.
"Don't ever call me a princess again, Sirius. You don't know half of it," Valerie snarled and quietly snuck back inside the castle. Sirius sat there stunned. Had Slughorn not saved his ass, he might have been missing an ear by now. Valerie was a strong match against him and he was sure he would have lost to her, although he would never admit that to anyone. He suddenly had an idea for her new nickname. He slipped inside and ran back up to the common room. Valerie was nowhere to be found, but the others were sitting on the couch looking bewildered.
"What the hell did you do to her, Padfoot?" James asked.
"Yeah," Remus agreed, "She looked like she wanted to kill someone when she came storming through here a second ago."
"Ah, she was about to start in on that Padfoot thing again, so I just said we should call her princess instead and long story short, she nearly ripped out my throat." Sirius grinned, "I think we should call her Fang because if anyone crosses her they just might die."
Remus and James chuckled, although they knew full well that was probably accurate.