The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

XXIX: December, 1993

Rodger Crookshanks did not fancy the plan Sirius Black had come up with in the least. Yet with the promise of making his Harry happy, he agreed to the job of being the deliverer of the form to the owl post office.

It was before six o'clock in the morning, the students were all still in bed, and Sirius Black poked his head cautiously out from the tapestry that covered the mouth of the passageway in the DADA corridor. Weak winter sunlight was coming in through a window at the end of the hall. Sirius stood, listening closely, then slipped out into the corridor in his human form. He tip-toed past sleeping portraits, Crookshanks weaving along beside him, their feet silent against the carpeting.

It wasn't the first time Sirius had dared to sneak out of the passageway. The other times, he'd gone as a dog down to the cellars where the kitchen was and transformed long enough to entice some food from an overzealous house elf that lived in the kitchens. The elf happily gave Sirius bags of food that he brought back to the passageway, and even offered to bring him platefuls of the evening meal left overs each night, directly to the alcove. The elf reminded him more of the old Lupin elf, Tizzy, than the manky scab that was Kreacher. His name, he said, was Dobby. Sirius told Dobby his name was Elphinstone Platter, though, because although Dobby seemed like a nice elf, he also seemed a bit off, wearing colorful socks on his ears and a pair of toddlers swimtrunks with sharks on them, which were so large on him that he had used the string at the waist to create a sort of toga. Whoever heard of a house elf with clothes?

This time, though, he went through the castle, pausing regularly to be sure he was avoiding Filch, and slid against the wall until they'd arrived to a horrible old statue of a humpbacked with - Grundhilda of Gorsemore.

"Here we are," he murmured, and Crookshanks sat and watched Sirius tap the witch's back with his wand. "Dissendium."

The hump receded and Sirius climbed up rather awkwardly, motioned for Crookshanks to come up, and held onto the cat. "Here we go!"

The slide from the humpback down to the pathway beyond was a long and fantastic ride, and Sirius laughed with an unhinged manic laughter as he and Crookshanks sailed through the darkness to the passage below. Crookshanks claws sank so deep into Sirius's arm that when they landed with a thump at the bottom there was a bit of blood drawn on Sirius's arm.

Now that his wand was no longer needed, Sirius turned back into a dog, and the pair of animals started a very long walk through the tunnel, which wove this way and that, up and down, until they reached some stairs far, far off from the castle.

Twice as long as the passgeway to the Shack, easily! Crookshanks complained. He had wanted to use the familiae passage, but Sirius, afraid there might be dementors in the Shack still, had insisted on this passageway.

Before climbing the steps, Sirius transformed again long enough to take the form out of his pocket, rolled up into a tiny scroll, and use a string to tie it about Crookshank's neck loosely enough the cat could easily get it off, but not so loose that it would just fall off during the rest of the trip to the post office.

"Now remember, Rodger, that you're to go behind the counter and pop it in one of the bins back there. Don't leave it just anywhere, it has to actually make it to an owl!"

Crookshanks flicked his tail.

They climbed the stairs, then, and Sirius carefully pushed open a trap door at the top, only enough to peer out. The smell that came through even the tiny crack he'd opened up was positively delicious. Warm chocolate and sugar.

"Looks clear enough!" Sirius hissed and pushed the door open the rest of the way.

They were in the cellar of Honeydukes, and Sirius felt a boyish excitement overcome him as he breathed in the scent of the candies and looked around at the crates, knowing what they contained. It had been so long since something so simple had excited him, and he laughed giddily when he saw Bertie Bott's and Jelly Slugs and various other packages of candies he remembered, still looking precisely as they had years ago.