The Four Marauders.

The Four Marauders- The Hospital Wing

"Um, Poppy?" said James, tentatively, as they walked into the hospital wing. "Are you there... We've got a bit of a, erm... Bit of a problem" James added. As soon as the words had left his lips, Madam Pomphery was standing opposite him, she was a very alert, lady, maybe in her early forties, or mid forties at the most. She had blond, frizzy, shoulder length hair, and if there was one thing she hated about James was his tendency to pick up the habit, originally from Sirius, to call her by her first name: Poppy.

"What have I told you not to call me by my-" She started.

"Yes, yes, I know that I'm not supposed to, I won't do it again, Poppy, but we've got a more pressing matter at the moment..." James said turning to Remus for help.

"Erm... yes, well" Remus muttered, "Sirius has a dogs voice" He said quickly, he was a horrible liar, so the less he said, the less suspicion there would be.

"How on earth did that happen??," She said, "Sirius, go and sit yourself on the bed" She added, she turned to Remus and James, "Does he understand what your saying?" she asked, the boys nodded their heads. "Okay... So how did this happen, may I ask?" She said, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, um, you see that's just it..." Remus started. His palms sweating and his forehead becoming damp.

"Ah yes, funny you should ask that," James said, cutting across Remus, he was a much better liar than Remus, James had experience in the matter of deception, "You know those jelly beans, Bertie Bott, you know him: the guy who first made Bertie Botts every flavour jelly beans? Him. Well, he brought out, the new ones, yes?" He asked, Madam Pomphery shook her head, wondering where this was going, "Well, when you eat one, your voice turns into an animals" Madam Pomphery gave him a look saying 'Well-why-did-you-eat-them-then.'  "They turn your voice funny temporally, of course" James added hastily. "Well, this batch must have been, um, really dodgy, because Sirius' voice stayed as a dogs." He lied.

"Oh, okay then, well when did he eat them? Have you actually given it time for it to wear off" she asked, half expecting James to say it had only been about three seconds ago.

"They are meant to wear off after thirty seconds to a minute, its been fourty minutes" once again, James was lying.

"Okay, right, I've got just the thing for that" Madam Pomphery said, "It's my own creation," She added, proudly. The two boys looked at each other worriedly. "It's called the voice restoring potion" She explained.

"Original" James said cheekily, Remus giving him a discreete kick. Madam Pomphery didn't seem to notice as she had her back turned to the two boys.

"It will work for any voice complications," She carried on, "Anything from cases like these, to hexes and it would even work if someone decided to try and become animagi" she said casually.

"Well, we didn't do that, don't want the possibility of death" Remus said quickly. Madam Pomphery gave him a strange look.

"It was just an example." She stated, raising an accusing eyebrow. "Anyway, I will need him to stay over night, tomorrow and tomorrow night, as of course, the potion isn't perfected." She justified, "so it might take some times to take action". She walked over to her large potion cabinet and pulled out a slim, tall vile, it was labelled with a parchment tag saying 'Voice Recovery Potion.' She twisted the small, spherical top, "Just to say, I'm going to give you a beaker of this every three hours." She told Sirius. He gave a dog whine in return. "Okay, if you just want to say goodnight to him, then you can be on your way" She said, she spun around on her heels and stalked away.

James bent down to whisper something in his ear: "I'll see you tomorrow night, I'll use the cloak.", Sirius responded with a stiff nod, not wanting to be humiliated again by letting out a sound like a dog, afterwards, James and Remus started walking back to the dormatory, still slightly ammused at Sirius' misfortune.

"Only he could manage this" Remus said honestly.

"Couldn't of our it better myself, James replied, grinning.