𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗔𝗭𝗞𝗔𝗕𝗔𝗡 [𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚍]

Chapter Thirty One: Free Your Mind

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

"Amato . . . animo . . . animo animato . . . animagus." James Potter muttered in his sleep. Seems it's true what they say about old habits dying hard.

James muttered a few more things about a certain redhead before he turned over in his sleep and buried his face deep into his pillow to escape the delicate shafts of sunlights that managed to enter his bedroom thanks to the curtains he forgot to close the previous night.

It was the summer before fifth year and Sirius Black was staying at the Potter's mansion along with Peter Pettigrew. Their other friend, Remus Lupin, had a full moon coming in a few days time and didn't want to be away from home, so it was just the three of them (although three teenage boys in one house is still a lot).

You're probably wondering how Sirius happened to be here, at the Potters' house, when all his mother wanted to do was burn the Potter's house down, then try to burn the ashes of the burned down house for good measure.

The answer to that, my friends, it that she had decided to act on her words around the end of Sirius' second year at Hogwarts, and deemed it would be better for Regulus if Sirius wasn't around Grimmauld Place much to "poison him".

It was an arrangement that worked for everyone. Sirius gets to spend the summer and inter-semester breaks with his best mates and Regulus will stay the "prefect" son because Sirius won't be there to "pollute him with his Mudblood-loving, Gryffindor ways".

So now Sirius comes to the Potter Manor whenever he please so long as Mr. and Mrs. Potter are willing to have him over, which is pretty much all the time.

This time, the three friends met up over this particular summer to perfect something they've been working on for the better part of the last three years, their Animagi forms. They'd finally managed to get a lightning storm a few days ago and drank their Animagus Potions (which tasted like dirty old goblin socks boiled with cabbage and garlic, among other things). All that's left now was just polishing and putting in the final touches.

The process of Animagus transformation is no bed of roses and going through the tedious process of it had the boys' respect for Professor McGonagall increase a hundred fold.

It took a bloody lot of work to get to where they are now. To mention a few, they had to hold mandrake leaves under their tongues for two whole months (the extra month because Peter swallowed his first leaf a few days before they were to spit them out). They also had to live off pumpkin juice and butterbeer during that time since they couldn't take out the leaves to eat solid food or talk. Remus went along with their diet because he felt guilty (and they did nothing to stop him).

Then there was the residues of transformations they had to endure. Like Peter's front teeth growing to twice there normal size (which was saying a lot), Sirius having to walk around with whiskers and a wet nose for three days and James looking like a poor attempt at a satyr with small antlers sprouting out of his head for a week, so he had to wear a ridiculous yellow hand-knit beanie that Remus had Lily make for him.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

James poked his head out of his room's door and checked the hallway before locking the door and casting a Muffilato on it for more privacy. They couldn't let one of his parents walk in on them while they are in their Animagus forms.