Chapter Text
*Author note
First of all- welcome back! This is assuming you are coming from book 1 to which I am happy you are here! While things are very similar to my first story, there are some changes. Instead of first person POV I have switched to third. I don't have a good reason as to why I did this other than its working for me and whatever I need to do to motivate myself to write is the things I do.
There are three POVs in this sort of first chapter, I think it will be easy enough to understand who each is. All three take place at roughly the same time, or at least they all kind end at the same time. While June, our OC, is who the story mainly follows I think I am going to throw in some side character POVs for my own enjoyment (hopefully you guys will like it too).
PREFACE
Paris was beautiful, his mother mentioned it seemed especially so as they walked through Rue de Furstemberg, waiting for his father who was in the French Ministry of Magic just below their feet. But Cedric felt he couldn’t quite take in the beauty like he might have even just a year ago. Even the vibrant green trees and historic muggle architecture couldn’t sway his emotions as his heart yearned for one beauty he found greater than anything he had yet to see on his summer travels- or anywhere else for that matter. What was Paris to her deep ocean eyes or her golden hair? What was anything against the way he felt when she smiled?
“I just feel so lucky we were able to take this trip this year-” Cedric’s mother’s voice cut into his thoughts, rousing him from what was about to be a very lovely day dream. Instead the green of the treetops came back into view, and he felt his mother’s grip on his arm tighten.
“Yes of course-” He responded quickly, not wanting her to think he wasn’t paying attention. She squeezed his arm again.
“If your father did not need to be in France for ministry business we may have missed our yearly holiday all together, yet luck was on our side. Now even though your father is busy working we can enjoy lovely afternoon strolls like this.”
She gestured out to the street which they were now making their way across. Cedric smiled and nodded, even if the sentiment likely didn’t meet his eyes. This particular conversation had been had multiple times since leaving on their sabbatical, and each time it brought him to wonder if his father had been asked to work in say Siberia or Matabeleland, then would his mother have chosen to stay home for the summer? And if so, would he already get to be with the beauty that he so much desired?
“You must make the most of this trip,” His mother said, cutting into his thoughts once more. This too was not the first time she had expressed this. He turned his head slightly to look at her, and he knew she could tell again that his thoughts were miles away.
“In just two years' time you may find yourself already busy with job prospects. If we are lucky we will have at least one more summer after this to travel before your life will truly begin, and you may never find yourself like this again.” She looked at him with both seriousness and softness in her eyes.
“Mother, we will have many more walks I’m sure.” Cedric said, but his mother just shook her head.
“No, I fear our time, just you and I, has just about come to an end. While I’ll always be more than happy to spend time with my son, I know that even now you would wish that there was at least one more added to our party.” She looked up at him with a knowing stare and Cedric felt his cheeks start to warm. “Which you know I would have been more than happy to oblige, but since she wasn’t able to travel with us I do hope you won’t let these moments get swept up in what is to come. Just enjoy where you are now, the magic of these moments.”
Of course, Cedric nodded again, but he felt guilty knowing he couldn’t will himself to actually agree. Truth be told, he would have rather given up every moment in Paris if it meant another one right now with her.
--------------
If Fred had actually been focussed on the task at hand, he would have noticed the signs of the imminent explosion much faster and the pot he attempted to haphazardly use to snuff it out might have done its job. But he in fact was not paying attention, thus the explosion went off sending both the makeshift firecracker and the pot shooting towards the ceiling. The experiment ripped right through the ceiling and went soaring into the sky, while the pot crashed first against the ceiling and then on the floor barely missing George.
“Fuck!” Fred hissed out, keeping his voice low even though he knew she had heard them.
“BOYS?!?”
Both twins winced at the sound and immediately scrambled to hide everything scattered about on their floor. Even though they had spent years hiding things away at lightning speed, they almost didn’t make it before she stomped in.
“What is Merlin's name going on in here?!!?” Their mother yelled as the bedroom door swung open. Her face was as fiery red as her hair, which also looked like it had been whipped around in her quick accent up the stairs.
“Just a lively game of exploding snap mum.” George said without missing a beat. As he spoke he moved away from the corner floor board which hid most of what their mother deemed as contraband.
“Since when did exploding snap make holes in the roof???” She pointed up with her wand towards the hole that was letting in a rather majestic beam of light. Fred tried to relax his shoulders as he turned back to his mom, looking anywhere but the wand that was now menacingly pointed at them.
“Must have been a bad batch.” He replied with a shrug. “I mean, we were trying to keep it quiet; kept it under a pot and everything.”
Quickly he bent down to where the pot was still on the ground, then using the sleight of hand trick he had been practicing from his muggle magic books he flicked the exploding snap cards out right as he lifted the lid. He might have been dumb enough to have stopped paying attention at a very critical point, but he wasn’t so dumb that he didn’t come prepared with al alibi.
Their mother looked between them, and Fred had to fight the urge to turn towards his brother. He knew though that they were both wearing the same practiced smile they had spent years trying to trick their mother with. It rarely worked at getting them out of trouble on its own, but paired with a good cover story…
“No more of this-” She gestured with her wand around the room, obviously not believing the story but also not having a good explanation to counter. “-in the house. I’ve told you time and time again I want none of your experiments, you’re wasting your time on such trouble and I don’t need it destroying our home.”
“Of course mum.” Both boys said too much in unison that Fred nearly flinched. Their mother scowled but didn’t say anything until she flicked her wand back up towards the hole.
“Both of you on the roof now. I want that hole fixed by dinner.”
“Ah what??” George said incredulously, dropping all of the innocent act. “But it will take you less than a minute to fix it!?”
“I don’t care. You broke it, you fix it. Now both of you go- there are spare roofing tiles in the shed.” She then pointed out the door and Fred started trudging forwards, his brothers heavy footsteps right behind him.
--
“Did you see Ron snickering when we left the kitchen?” George asked as he handed Fred the next roof tile.
As he looked up to take it he noticed a rather pretty looking sunset growing behind him. Would have been nice to see if he wasn’t so annoyed.
“I’d like to wipe that smile off his face with a test of the tongue toffy or maybe the canary creams.” George continued when Fred didn’t reply.
“We need to lay low for a few days at least.” Fred replied, hammering the tile in place. “If we do something else stupid so soon mum will do another search of our room and we’ll lose all our progress.”
“What do you mean we? If I remember right I wasn’t the one who didn’t put the pot on in time- that was your job. If you had just been paying attention we wouldn’t be sitting up here.”
Fred looked up feeling annoyed, and was about to attempt to shove his brother off the roof but stopped. Instead he just signed and dropped his head.
“I know, it was stupid of me.”
“Yeah it was….” George paused, probably confused as to Fred's uncharacteristically quick admittance of his mistake. “What was up with that anyway, you’re usually way more alert than that.”
If it was almost anyone else Fred might have hesitated to say, but this was his brother- his twin. There wasn’t anything that he could ever hide from him.
“She hasn’t written in a few days.” He said rather quietly.
“And you’re worried about that?” George asked.
“Yes well…” Fred ran his hands through his hair. “She did say she was going to be busy for a few days so expect not to hear from her-”
“Well then what’s the problem??” George cut in, making Fred finally look up with a scowl.
“The problem is it's been seven days and that feels like too long of a time, AND when I sent Errol with my last letter just wanting to check in he ended up coming back without delivering it this morning.”
“Well this wouldn’t be the first time Errol has come back without having finished a job- remember when Percy had to use him a few weeks ago because Hermes was already out and he threw a fit when he came back with the same letter? Flailed out on the ground crying and everything.” His brother smirked and poked his elbow out at him in an attempt to get him laughing about cry baby Percy, but Fred couldn’t smile this time.
“I feel so useless stuck here-” He gestured out around the Burrow below them. “-I mean even if she did write back and said she was in trouble there’s almost nothing I could do anyway. Stupid wizarding law has us up here hammering instead of just using magic. I hate feeling like this!”
George didn’t respond right away this time, instead he just put his hand on Fred’s shoulder and they just sat together. Both of them looked out into the sunset and watched it start to fall behind the hills.
“Well let's not jump to conclusions, it's a rather large fall from here.” George said finally, and when Fred didn’t answer he continued. “I’m sure she’s fine, and I’m sure she’ll send her owl again soon. And when she does you’ll be able to tell her all about our riveting adventure up here on the roof.”
Fred snorted, knowing full well he wasn’t going to mention this embarrassing debacle. Well maybe when she finally came to visit in person he would talk about it. When he wrote to her he had to focus on the more important and interesting things going on, things that were worth reading in a letter. But once they could talk face to face they could just share whatever they wanted like they used to do- things that seemed unimportant but felt pretty worthwhile when he could see her reactions. Merlin how he missed that.
They finished the roof a few minutes later, and while Fred was feeling at least a little better than before he still couldn’t seem to focus very well. It didn’t matter much anyway since he and Goerge had to put off their plans for at least a few days now. Barely paying attention to the songs his mother had turned on the wireless after dinner wouldn’t make any holes in the roof.
“Has Hermes made it back today?”
It was Percy’s voice that cut in, which Fred attempted to ignore as well. The nutcase had taken his dinner to his room to work the moment he stepped through the fireplace, and apparently only needed to reappear to find even more work. How were they even related? There was some back and forth happening between Percy and their mother but Fred continued to tune it out.
“Fred, will you show us some more of your muggle magic tricks?” Ginny asked, stepping into Fred’s glazed over view and pulling his attention. He had been using his family the last month as an audience so he could perfect everything before she came over- if she ever came over.
“Don’t really feel like it.” Fred grumbled.
“Ah come on, it’ll be a great distraction.” George replied with a shove. Fred let his body fall to the side of the sofa.
“Ah there he is!” Called out Percy’s voice, which was soon followed by the sound of flapping wings. The thought of an owl that was not hers made Fred feel a new low, which ended up being enough motivation to try to snap out of it. So still a little begrudgingly sat back up and accepted his fate.
“Alright fine-” He said, now getting to his feet. Ginny smiled and moved to take his spot to watch the show. “I need a piece of paper for this one though. I’m going to rip it up and then magically make it whole again.”
Actually this particular trick called for two pieces of paper, but they didn’t need to know that. He turned to see if his mom had any pieces lying around.
“If you’re looking for paper you could use this-” Percy said, striding back into the room. He held out a folded piece of paper.
“What, did Mr. Crouch send back your love letter? Need it ripped up to destroy the evidence?” Fred teased, making his brother’s nostrils flair.
“I thought the magic trick was supposed to make the letter whole again.” He replied hotly, still holding out the paper. “But I guess if you want to shred up your friend’s letter then by all means you’re welcome to. But I’ll make sure to add it to my reply to- HEY!”
Fred, with a wild feeling in his chest, yanked the paper from his brother’s grasps making him call out. When Percy had said friend Fred thought he was just making some stupid joke, but as he had held the paper out Fred noticed the all too familiar handwriting that had spelled out his name there on the front.
“How did you get this???” He asked, his hands starting to shake.
“Well she isn’t just your friend you know, I write to her as well. I don’t have much time for it these days but since I had a free moment this morning and Hermes was indisposed I figured I’d catch her up to speed with things. Seems I found her indisposed as well with such a fast reply, which is a good thing because I will be needing Hermes to send Mr. Crouch-”
Percy continued to talk but Fred wasn’t listening anymore. Instead he turned and started running up to his room. Honestly why did it even matter how Percy got the letter- it was here! He was more excited than he had felt in a while, and had to be careful not to rip the paper as he unfolded it due to how much he was shaking.
Little did he know though, that reading that letter was going to make all his previous worries soar farther away than any firecracker could.
----------
Her body was soaking wet, but still she didn’t feel cold. Even though they had been trekking through this particularly stormy part of the highlands since the earliest of mornings, June felt as if she could continue on as if it wasn’t raining cats and dogs- which was rather ironic right now.
Speaking of dogs, her canine companion called out to her, signaling her to move towards a cluster of trees just up ahead. It seemed like maybe he was getting tired of the rain and fancied a break. She knew they were already so close to their destination- why stop now? She didn’t argue though, rather followed obediently to the coverage of the canopy.
Once they were both under the cover of the branches June instinctively shook her body, starting with her head and then moving down all the way to her tail. Once her coat was less heavy she turned towards her friend who was still in the process of doing the same. She couldn’t help but smile when he shook out a few more times, the old drops of rain spraying out all around.
“Coat too heavy old man?” She tried to tease, but it didn’t come out quite right. It was hard to make ideas like that come out lighthearted with such a small range of tone and diction. Thankfully Sirius understood the nuance of her limitation.
“Only stronger now. When matured you will understand.”
It was a jab right back, and done so much better than her own. Speaking in animal form was shaping out to be a lot harder than just living in it.
“Just over the hill.” He barked, gesturing with his head out to the right.
June nodded, but felt confused. She knew they had been close to their destination, she had thought so just moments before. Even though the rain made her vision not as clear, the smells of the area were so distinct she had felt rather certain of their location. So it made her wonder that if the rain on his coat wasn’t bothering him then why did they bother the detour when they could get warm in just a few minutes?
“Change now.”
June’s abrupt disdain for the idea that answered her question came out as a low hiss; a noise that still sounded foreign coming out of her mouth.
“NO. Rain worse after change.” She hissed out again. Without a thick coat of fur she knew she would be feeling the effects of the weather with what felt certain to be an unbearable degree of harshness. The thought of it made her shiver even now. Not to mention she didn’t really want to change back, things were just starting to feel more normal.
“Does baby fear heavy coat?”
The jab and the stupid toothy grin Sirius now showed stung June enough to outweigh the upcoming discomfort. She was still rather unwilling, but begrudgingly began moving around to make sure that the area would be adequate for transformation. After a minute and deciding the spot was acceptable she turned back to Sirius for his approval to which he nodded- and so with a deep breath she pictured herself in human form.
Name: Juniper Gray
Age: 16
Eye color: Dark blue
Hair Color: Sandy Blond
Skin Color: White
Nationality: American
Height: 5’ 3”
Weight: 116Ibs
This particular list wasn’t a visual representation of her physical body, rather the image that popped into her head was of a floating blue screen with those details listed above. It was a sharp reminder of who she was, and the fact that she did not belong in this world- both thoughts had proven very effective in helping her transform back into her normal state.
In the last year, the definition of a normal state of being had surpassed all her expectations. When she was born in her normal life in what she assumed was a normal world, she couldn’t even imagine anything different. But since her abrupt death almost a year ago she had found herself taken into a reality that forever changed what “normal” would mean for her.
You have been given one chance at another story- which will you choose?
Upon her death some all powerful and unknown force had presented itself to her as a blue screen and asked her that exact question. A question that began the change of everything.
“You cannot delay the process.”
It was a human voice that spoke to her now, startling her from her thoughts and making her jump up just as a cat would when scared. Embarrassed, June did not turn around, especially because she could hear Sirius chuckling to himself. Instead she focussed back on the blue screen and willed the magic forward. It took a moment, but eventually she began to feel the change.
--
The walk back to Black Manor was just as miserable as she predicted, maybe even worse. The change from animal to human left her feeling weak and pointedly vulnerable, both feelings exacerbated by the rain pelting down on her. But even in her misery she understood why they were doing it.
She thought in her animagus state she had been thinking clearly, but the change back to person made her realize that her thoughts weren’t quite up to snuff. When she was changed it was more like her brain ran on emotions and instinct rather than critical thinking. Not that existing in a 16 year old body allowed her much chance at putting critical thinking above emotions- even teenagers in the wizarding world had raging hormones.
Anyway- once back in her normal body she remembered her conversations with Sirius about the underage wizarding laws and its potential to trace her back to him. While they were in Hungary, to which the Ottoman Ministry of Magic was significantly more lax on underage magic use, they didn’t want to take any chances. This is why her initial transformation into animagus and all subsequent changes back and forth all had to be done far enough away from the unchartable perimeter of the Black Manor as to keep Sirius’ hiding place safe. She would be 17 in six months time, but until then it was better to be safe than sorry about the trace.
This was just one of the conditions her mentor had put in place when he had agreed to help her become an animagus. The other was not to tell-
“Remus?!” Sirius called out in surprise as he and June had barely stepped two feet into the manor. “You’re back early!”
June looked up from her huddled stance, her wet hair in pieces across her vision. Even with the physical disparity she felt, the shock of seeing the tired and confused looking man before her was enough to even stop her shivering.
“Why were you out in the rain?? I was worried that you weren't here when I got back.” He moved towards them quickly, pulling off his own cloak as if to put it around one of them.
Even in her tired state June noticed how Lupin moved instinctively towards Sirius, but then seemed to register her, the child, also there and instead stepped more towards her and threw his jacket around her. She had spent the summer so far noticing little things like this that it was almost an expectation. And yet somehow they still weren’t together.
Thankfully, Remus’ concern for both their well-being allowed them some more time to think of an answer to his question of where they had been. After putting the large overcoat around June he hurriedly ushered both her and Sirius into one of the nearby drawing rooms where a fire was already going. It would have been much faster to use magic to warm and dry them, but no magic was allowed in the house if June was there. Again, although the Ottomon Ministry seemed to be less strict with their underage magic trace, both Remus and Sirius agreed to not take any chances. Well, maybe Remus was a bit more serious.
They were then allowed a few more extra minutes of silence as they got dry, but as time went on June could feel the sense of foreboding and she prayed Black had come up with a believable answer to why they were in the rain.
“I think June-” Sirius started, just as Lupin had begun to open his mouth again. “-That you better head up to your room and change. It's likely nearly tea and we wouldn’t want to make Remus wait any longer after his long journey.”
“I apparated here Padfoot, and it's only 10am.” Remus replied without a trace of a joke.
“Afer I’m sure a very long morning- now you run along June.” Sirius turned to face more towards her so his friend couldn’t see and gave her a look that said get out while you still can.
With a nod June got up and handed her old Professor his now rather wet coat. He accepted it and gave her a very tired smile before she turned away. Once she was out of the drawing room and away from the warmth of the fire the shivers came back and she hurried as fast as her tired body could carry her to her room. How she wished she had her fur coat back- she moved even faster down the hall.
Even though it had been a week since she was last in her room, everything was exactly as she had left it. Thankfully she had the foresight to already have a fresh change of clothes out and ready for her return. She changed quickly, the dry clothes making her existence a bit more bearable. The next thing that helped was laying down on an actual bed.
For the last week it had been nothing but piles of leaves and grass to put together as a sort of bed under trees or in the occasional cave. Well okay actually it sounded worse than it actually was, at least in animal form June didn’t have much of a problem with it. But now she couldn’t imagine how she endured it- any of it. Seven days living as a wild animal, seven days getting used to a new part of herself, seven days of full time animagus.
“You missed tea.”
The voice made her shift awake, not realizing she had even fallen asleep. She moved to get up but her body felt so stiff.
“Slowley,” Sirius’ voice came again. “You’re going to be feeling the effects of the change for a few days.”
“You should have gotten me up sooner.” June replied as she finally sat up. She looked over at the now cleaned up man standing in her doorway. He smiled and shrugged.
“Eh, you needed more sleep. Besides it gave me more time to convince Remus we were just out for a stroll before getting caught in the rain.”
“And he believed that? I mean, it's practically flooded all around the grounds. It was up to my calves in some parts we walked through to get here. Why would we have gone out for a walk in all that?”
He shrugged again. “I said it had stopped and we wanted to take the chance to get out of the house after being trapped by the rain all the previous day. So that’s the story and make sure you stick with it. Honestly all things considered it worked out well for us because if we hadn't walked in soaking wet he would have been able to tell we had likely been away for days with how grimey we both would have looked.”
June snorted. “Speak for yourself, I made sure I was very well groomed every night.”
“Yeah well, I guess that’s what you get for choosing a cat.”
Sirius smiled again and moved to step forward into her room but before he did he glanced back into the hallway. June was going to correct him that she wasn’t just a cat, but decided to let it go. He had saved them both from Remus finding out, best to be grateful rather than snarky.
“What’s he doing?” she asked, moving herself out of the bed and towards the two chairs she and Sirius had often occupied together when he came in to talk.
“Cooking up some food for you. Even though he doesn’t know what’s going on he still seems worried about you. Maybe you can make sure to put on the little show to ease his worries.” Sirius took his own seat across from her.
“I feel like shit Sirius.” June replied, her voice totally void of emotion.
“Yeah that’s pretty normal,” He replied with a grimace. “I still feel like the extended time to get used to your form was necessary, but it definitely takes its toll.”
It had been helpful, especially knowing that sooner than later June wouldn’t have Sirius to rely on when she chose to go into her animagus form again. Now she at least knew how to exist as an animal, and even live like one for an extended period of time if need be. Learning to hunt, hide, and survive; they were necessary lessons, just an exhausting ones.
“-I promise it wont last forever though,” Sirius continued, this time with an actual smile. “And this might help for now.”
He pulled a vile out of his pocket and June recognized right away the orange color of an invigoration potion. It had been on her long list of learning for her potions OWLS last year, one that had even ended up on the assessment. When would those results be coming out anyway…
June felt her mind start to wander and tried to pull it back as she reached out for the vile. For sure she was going to need this if she was going to keep it together in front of Lupin.
“You did really well kid.” He reached out and patted her shoulder with his now free hand. “I mean just this last week, you worked really hard and I know there were some tough moments. We can talk more about it later, but I’m um I’m really proud of you.”
He stood up then, looking a little hesitant after expressing his feelings. June wanted to reassure him that it was fine so before he stepped away she reached out to grab his hand. As he turned, she smiled at a look of surprise on his face.
“Thank you, for everything, this week included.”
He nodded, squeezed her hand, and then let go and moved the rest of the way to the door.
“Come down once the potion takes effect.” Then he went down the hall.
--
The potion took effect almost as soon as it went down, but it took June a few extra minutes to make it into the kitchen. Just as she had stood the leave there was a tapping coming from her window. Initially she thought she’d see her own Owl maybe come down from the small owlery attached to the Black manor, but instead of her own long eared owl Bunny there in the rain was a familiar screech owl.
“Hello there Hermes,” June said as the soggy bird hopped into her room. Little guy was soaked, but didn’t seem in poor spirits. In fact once he had shook himself off he seemed ready to get back out there.
“Percy keep you on a tight schedule does he? I better reply and, oh I should write to Fred as well. Hold on Hermes, let me get you some food.”
She moved around quickly, getting Bunny’s perch set up for a different occupant and then once he was perched she started on the letters. Percy’s was rather quick, since he seemed to more want to be heard more than hear much of what she had to say. It was a long letter all about the work he had done in the last two weeks, which was basically just the same thing over and over again. Still she appreciated hearing from him, especially since it meant she could get a letter to Fred more quickly now. She felt a quickening from her heart, seemingly unrelated to to the potion, as she thought about him. It wouldn’t be long now until she could see him again- and that thought made her heart beat even harder.
“Well, little guy, I think you’ll be seeing me again very soon.” June said as she moved to tie the two notes around the owl’s almost fully dry leg. “Now that I’ve got the transformations down, I’m ready to head back out into the world and I’m due to visit your home. So put in a good word for me okay?”
Hermes twisted his head at her which made her chuckle. Then as soon as the window was again open he set off. Barely even a rest and he was gone, June felt sure that Percy would appreciate his hard work. And she appreciated it as well, because that meant Fred would likely get her note before the end of the day. Would he be excited to hear from her after a whole week? Did he miss her?
“Ah I better write to Cedric as well,” June said out loud to nobody as she was now once again alone. She needed a distraction from this weird feeling she was having and playing narrator did that well enough.
“He’ll be back from France soon, I should confirm our plans as well. But oh-” She turned to look out the door. “Better not keep them waiting anymore. This may end up being the last meal the three of us have together anyway.”
That thought definitely sobered her up. Yes, she best make the most of her time now. Of course there were many things she was both looking forward to, and dreading… but they weren’t happening right now. Right now two good men were waiting for her to eat, two men who had done a lot for her own comforts this summer. She would worry about Fred and Cedric later, for now she'd enjoy her last day of summer at the Black Manor.
SONGS:
June: A Kind of Magic- Queen
Cedric: Michelle- The Beatles
Fred: Come on Eileen- Dexy’s Midnight Runners
*Author note
Thanks again for coming back to my story! I hope you enjoy! Any guesses on her choice of animal transformation? (I bet you can guess)
And as always, please leave me a song recommendation, this time we go all the way up to 1995!