One Day They'll Know Your Name

The rat's name

AN: As promised, the next chapter! A week late, but super long to make up for it. This chap is over 3k, which is definitely a record. If the style seems different, it was mostly written by my friend cause they had an idea and ran with it and I loved it so that's what this is.

Same warnings I mentioned earlier apply, Sirius does not react well to the betrayer of his best friends and Harry does not react well to Sirius' reaction. It's a very short moment, and it's not very specific or graphic, but if it makes you uncomfortable skip from "A voice suddenly shouted from upstairs." to "Sirius? Guys? Wh-what happened?"

Distributer note: hi there, I'm the friend, please be nice 👉👈

Sirius stood up quickly, heading towards another room. "If I even smell that rat bastard I'll kill him, that no good, scum of the earth, son of a-" he grumbled to himself as he disappeared behind the doorway. He returned shortly with his wand clutched tightly in his hand and rushed for the door. Regulus stood as well, his chair scraping across the wood.

"No, you stay here, Reggie."

"What? No way! I can help, and you're certainly not going to watch your back much in this state."

"Yeah, you'll really help if you get yourself killed for real should anyone see you!"

"But-"

"You're staying here. No arguing."

"You do realize I can legally Apparate and I know you're going to Hogwarts. I can just Apparate right outside the grounds. What about that shack everyone thought was haunted?"

"Not if I tie you down."

"You've never kept me away before, and I doubt you'll be able to now."

"I can at least slow you down, hopefully enough to keep you out of it till it's over. I just got you back, I'm not letting you die again!"

Regulus just crossed his arms. "And you think Harry would want to hear about your dead body because you didn't take backup? You know we work well together, and we can watch each other's backs."

Sirius gritted his teeth and threw up his hands. "Fine! But give me three minutes before coming to make sure it's clear. It should be, but it's the full moon and if Remus is there already I want a chance to explain before my dead brother shows up."

"Deal."

*******************

Draco huffed. He was in his dire wolf form, with his friends in their animal forms as well. Being a six foot tall wolf was inconvenient when he just wanted to cuddle with a comparatively much smaller tiger. He would crush his best friend without even meaning to if he flopped down on top of him like he wanted to. He huffed again and Harry chuffed at him. Draco flopped down on the floor nearby and Harry stalked over to flop down on top of him. A moment later Draco felt a tongue on his ears and he flicked his other ear, giving another huff as he dropped his head onto the ground. Despite Hermione's insistence of getting used to being in and acting like their Animagus forms, Draco refused to stop being his normal dramatic and stupidly crushing on his best friend self.

A moment later, Hermione perked up from her position in front of the window soaking in the last rays of sunlight and glared at a rat on the floor. Draco lifted his head and watched her, but Ron actually got up and went to go lay with her with a little growl that was more warning than actual plans to hurt her. Hermione simply stared at him before licking at her fur. Neville hopped up onto the window sill with a flap of his wings, cocking his head at all of them before transforming back to his human form.

"It's almost time to go, guys. Curfew's in about an hour and Professor Snape likes to do his rounds around here."

Hermione stood and stretched before sitting on her haunches and transforming back, followed quickly by Ron. Harry rolled over and off of Draco before transforming back sprawled out on the floor. Draco missed his warmth already. He huffed again and changed back himself, laying next to Harry. The carpet was shockingly comfortable for a classroom. He wondered what had been taught here.