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It was common knowledge among those at Hogwarts that James Potter and Sirius Black had a unique bond with each other. Even among the ever popular quartet known as the Marauders, those two boys were undeniably the closest of the lot. However, no matter how often and how loudly the two declared their love for each other, there were still times where one wished he could throw the other off the astronomy tower. This was the case for James Potter as he walked through the corridors of Hogwarts on one Friday afternoon.
His recent annoyance with his best mate was fueled by the fact that Sirius had upped and vanished earlier that day with little to no information on when he would be back and with no way to contact him. Sirius told them during their lunch break that he planned to spend some time in the forbidden forest because he felt like he might be able to accomplish his Animagus transformation soon and he wanted to put in some extra work on it. However, what he neglected to tell them was that he’d be gone the entire day. To make matters worse, the git conveniently decided to take the map with him so there was no way for the others to find him.
The three marauders had decided to become Animagi after the revelation of Remus’s furry little problem . However, so far, none of them had shown any indication of being successful. That was until Sirius hurriedly rushed out on them during lunch. Of course, the rest of the marauders did not even consider stopping him or going with him in fear of distracting him from his long-awaited progress. However, ever since Sirius rushed out, they had not heard from him since. In fact, he even skived their classes on Ancient Runes and Potions, something that he never did unless absolutely necessary.
This last fact was what annoyed James the most. Thanks to his unexpected absence, James was forced to pair up with a creepy Hufflepuff girl for both subjects. This proved to be a huge pain in the posterior because the girl was something of a stalker who would rather keep up her unwanted flirting rather than contribute to their assigned work.
As soon as their classes ended, James immediately stormed out of the entrance hall in irritation to search for his best mate and give him a piece of his mind. He walked over to the forbidden forest while wrapping his robes firmly around his body to protect himself from the cold. Predictably, James saw no sign of Sirius in the outer part of the forest. James frustratedly sighed before forcing his legs to walk further into the forest, all while constantly muttering about his reckless idiot of a best mate. He visited every nook and cranny of the forest that he and the other marauders were aware of and came up blank.
This was until he walked around a rather large bush and happened upon a beautiful sight that he was pretty sure none of the other Marauders had ever been to before. James scanned the clearing and found an obscure river that appeared out of place in the middle of the dark and foreboding forest. As he does so, he spotted a large black dog looking down at the river. James thought that it looked less like a dog and more like a bear. He also vaguely noted that it somewhat looks like the grim that his Divination professor kept going on about. James rolled his eyes at this thought because he completely believed that Divination was just a load of hippogriff dung.
James’s musings were interrupted by a sudden movement from the dog. It had been staring at its reflection earlier but it must have sensed someone approaching if its slightly more alert posture was anything to go by. At this, James’s common sense screamed at him not to approach the possibly wild animal. However, James, being the dog lover that he was, ignored his common sense and walked over to it anyway.
“Hey there! Are you lost?” James asked the dog. At this, the dog finally turned around to the sound of his voice and met his eyes. James thought that its eyes seemed somewhat familiar but he didn’t bother dwelling on this thought.
The dog almost unnoticeably relaxed and, being unable to reply, the dog tilted its head to the side as if to shake its head to say that no, it wasn’t lost.
“Well, you think you can help me then? I’m looking for this annoying kid who spent the day wandering the forest, y’know? I mean he did tell me where he was going but he never said he’d be gone the whole day.” James exclaimed indignantly while the dog simply stared at him.
He paused for a moment before he continued, “I should probably tell you who exactly I’m looking for, huh? Well, his name is Sirius. He’s about as tall as me. He’s a really handsome bloke to be honest. Grey eyes, porcelain skin, high cheekbones, shoulder length hair… Actually, that’s all you need to know. He and his ridiculously gorgeous curls. Y’know, he rarely ever keeps his hair down despite how nice it is. Prefers to keep it tied up because he always says it was distracting and what not. But he usually keeps it down when it’s all wet and I swear it’s the most beautiful thing you’ll ever see. It’s about enough to make me lose control to be honest. That’s why I wish he'd just dry it with magic like I know he can instead of prancing around the room waiting for it to dry while wearing nothing but my quidditch jersey and boxers…”
James paused, his mouth suddenly went dry and he felt his face heat up as he hopelessly tried to get rid of the mental image. He gave himself a mental shake before he thought about how ridiculous he must look at the moment gushing about his most hopeless crush on his best mate to an innocent dog.
James cringed at this, “I… I should stop. I’ll just wait for him in the dorm, I guess. See ya!”
He waved goodbye to the dog, oddly under the impression that the dog understood him just now if he went by the seemingly amused expression on its doggy face.
James dismissed this thought thinking, “I must be losing it after spending hours walking around the cold forest.”
He walked back into the castle hurriedly as he saw that the sky had gone darker. As he passed by the entrance to the Great Hall, he realized that he just missed dinner because of his impromptu trek to the forest. Cursing Sirius again for this, he decided to stop by the kitchens for a few snacks to get him through the night.
Later that night, James entered the sixth year dormitory and was met by a sight that he never could have prepared for. Lounging on his bed is Sirius Black wearing nothing but James’s quidditch jersey and boxers that he obviously nicked from James’s trunk. He had been reading a muggle magazine before James entered, which caused him to look up to James through his wet tousled curls.
This was the exact picture his mouth just described to that dog in the forest earlier.
At this thought, James felt panic well up inside. Had Sirius been close by when he stupidly let his mouth take the reins?
James was contemplating throwing himself out of the dormitory window when he stopped himself and decided that there was no way Sirius had been close enough to listen to his rant because James was sure he would’ve noticed.
No, this has to be a coincidence.
James, realizing that Sirius was still staring at him questioningly, forced his mouth to cooperate, stuttered out, “W-Where have you been?”
“The forest. I told you I was going to work on my transformation, didn’t I?” Sirius said with a look of innocence. (Or one that intended to be a look of innocence anyway because was James really losing it or was Sirius, who had mastered the poker face thanks to his family since he was 5, struggling to keep his expression in place?)
Again, James ignored this thought before he can start panicking again and opted to ask, "Did you manage?"
"Of course I did! Although, I have to say, I didn’t expect the experience to be quite as insightful as it was." Sirius looked at James with an unreadable expression but there was an amused glint in his eyes.
No. PLEASE don’t tell me that he was…
James felt his face heat up as he prayed to anyone that would listen that he wouldn’t blush at this moment. He was aware that it takes a whole lot to get him to blush but when he does, there was simply no way to deny that he was, in fact, blushing.
James forced himself to ask, almost dreading the answer, "Well, what was your form?"
"A dog.” Sirius answered with an unrestrained smirk.
At this point, James wished he simply threw himself out the window earlier as he somehow manages to complete HIS transformation, not as an Animagus but as a tomato.