( Thursday )
"So Harry, have you made any progress in finding your animagus form? Or have you finally given up and will just take the potion like everyone else?" Sirius asked with a smile, as the two of them sat down over a delicious pot roast for lunch in the Leaky Cauldron, before heading to their next series of afternoon meetings.
Chewing his food, the richly prepared meat danced over his taste buds, setting them alight with pleasure. He wondered if his newfound fondness for rare meat was from his recently discovered animagus form, or whether it was merely the natural effects of going through puberty and his body needing increasing amounts of protein to fuel his slow transition to adulthood.
He considered how he should reply to this question. "Actually I have," he offered with a sly smile. "You owe me 9 lives now, by the way," before taking another bite whilst watching Sirius cough and choke on his food.
"You're a cat?" his godfather exclaimed in excitement, to the point that Sirius' over-the-top reaction would have attracted sharp looks from the other nearby patrons, if it weren't for the privacy ward that they had erected around the table prior to their meal. His dogfather finally gave him a doggish grin, one filled with mischief. "Oh what fun I'll have chasing you around," the dog animagus boasted, while eyeing him like prey. "To think, I'll have my own little Professor McGonagall to chase around all summer."
Keeping his own smile at bay, he decided not to correct Sirius' mistaken idea that he was a normal, household cat, and opted to play his own prank on his godfather. "If you say so," he replied indifferently whilst internally grinning at Sirius taking the bait. Now he couldn't wait to successfully transform and terrify the old dog. 700 pounds of tiger would surely leave a strong impression. "Any progress with the locket?" he said, changing topics.
"No, the cursebreakers are rather stumped. In fact, they have no way of breaking the enchantments without destroying the locket itself," Sirius replied with a smile. "It's become quite a game for them, not that the goblins are pleased; they pride themselves on having the best curse breakers in Europe, and this is a stab against their egos.
Plus, they don't like failing a contract, because they will have to pay us for a change due to the penalty clause," a massive grin forming on his face. "It's not a large amount, mind you, but still, any gold they're paying out they're not happy about."
"I guess they wouldn't be," Harry acknowledged, finding the whole situation rather funny. "Have you decided on our holiday plans yet?" before digging into his greens.
"In the middle of arranging it," Sirius answered between mouthfuls. "I'm thinking a week in China, before heading to Korea for another week, then Japan, and then back home. Three weeks in total. We can easily fit it in between the moon cycles, so Remus can join us for our summer adventure. We'll have a great time together, and you can meet the real Remus, before he joins you at Hogwarts for next year and has to play the part of a stern teacher."
"Well thought out," he admitted, ignoring the remark about Remus. "This time, let's learn the translation charms beforehand, please. I'll start looking for my own when I get back to the school."
"You're not going to allow me to forget that, are you?" Sirius voiced with a tired, long-suffering sigh.
"Nope, especially if you forget again even with all my nagging," he pressed.
"You sound like my mother," Sirius countered with another sigh.
He resisted the automatic impulse to say, 'such a nice lady,' since that was a totally inaccurate statement from everything he knew of the former Lady Black. He instead chose to return to eating his food, letting his godfather have his little victory in this verbal duel.
It was also time to deal with another issue. Now that the manipulative and blackmailing headmaster knew that he was a Parselmouth, it would be much better to inform his godfather sooner rather than later, when it could possibly be used against him.
It just didn't make sense to keep it a secret any longer from Sirius. There was a risk that the old man would tell Remus after all, who could in turn tell Sirius in an attempt to undermine their relationship; he would just have to trust Sirius.
"Sirius," he said, grabbing the man's attention, "I can speak Parseltongue," he stated as his godfather's jaw dropped in response to this unexpected news, which unfortunately had the undesirable effect of the older wizard spitting his food at him when he exclaimed, "What!" in surprise and obvious shock.
"Sorry," Sirius offered back sheepishly, as Harry slowly cleaned his face with a napkin, removing the traces of food his godfather had just spat at him, before he pushed his half-eaten meal to one side now that it had been tainted with Sirius' spit.
"Yeah, you sure are. I was enjoying that pot roast," he expressed with a minor frown. "Now I smell like dog saliva."
"So you can speak Parseltongue?" Sirius probed, ignoring Harry's remarks.
"I just said that," Harry snapped in annoyance, before clamping down on his emotions with his Occlumency.
"No joke? James said something similar as a joke in sixth year," Sirius asked carefully, as a passing waiter took the offered plate from Harry.
"Do you really think I'd joke about something like this? Given what is happening around Hogwarts right now?" Harry shot back, annoyed at his godfather's question, whilst mentally processing the possibility that his father might have had the gift as well.
"Now that I think about it more rationally, no," Sirius offered with his own look of embarrassment. "When did you find out about this little talent of yours?"
"Christmas, actually, the day that I picked up supplies for Serenity. That was probably one of the reasons why I snapped at Remus," he offered to the older wizard whilst nursing his drink. "I was tempted to buy a snake right then, but thought better of it given the current climate at school. And yes, Tonks already knows," his godfather winced at this statement, for whatever reason, but most likely because he had told his cousin first rather than Sirius.
"However, this did lead to us finding the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, so the staff now knows where it is and are watching it for any activity. And I think they already caught the one responsible, actually. We're meant to be getting a school award in the near future in acknowledgement of our efforts."
"That's good," Sirius voiced with a smile.
"Yes, one less headache to worry about. Although I don't plan on telling anyone about my ability until this Chamber of Secrets business is a distant memory, as I can't really be bothered having to put up with the whole school treating me like some type of leper overnight," he admitted before drinking some of his honey brew.
"Now I've just got to concern myself with Pettigrew and my hundred other ongoing projects. At least with the map in my possession now, I can check my routes so that he can no longer ambush me in the hallways."
"Yeah, Peter knows the secret passages all over the school. The map has most of them. There's no reason why you can't try to ambush him using the map yourself," the former Marauder offered back.
"Good idea," Harry agreed with his own smile. "By the way, you said I should come to you for advice on women, and you've given great advice in the past, so what do you do when a girl is mad at you, but you have no idea what you've done wrong?"
"Either be more stubborn than them and wait it out, or get into a heated argument which you end by pulling them into a kiss, before having hot and rough make-up sex," Sirius advised with a smirk as Harry rolled his eyes, realizing that Sirius was being a goofball again.
"Or you could just say that you're sorry, give them a peace token, and listen to whatever lecture they give you and just nod in agreement, thereby learning what it was you did in the first place. During the lecture, say several variations of 'yes, you're right dear,' and repeatedly apologize, all without sounding patronizing.
Just remember that women can hold a grudge for a long time, so whatever you do, they will still remember it thirty years down the line anyway, even if it was totally pointless and illogical in the first place. Simply put, you just can't win with them, but you can pick your battles and minimize the damage."
"If you say so," Harry expressed, just thinking on Sirius' words of wisdom. The man was truly a genius when it came to practical advice on women. "How long do we have until our meeting with the architects?"
"We've got another half an hour yet," Sirius offered after looking at his pocket watch.
Nodding, "I'd like to pop by my vaults after we're done," Harry expressed.
"Any reason?" Sirius asked.
Deciding it would be best to be honest, "My mother left her private school notes there. I was going to take them in my first year, but decided against it as I lacked any knowledge to understand it at the time. I would like to take a look now," he expressed.
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :
p atreon.com/loveran