The Forest - R.L.

Chapter 19 - The Thoughts

A few months later, Grace found herself in back in the library, continuing her animagus research. Whilst the current book she had - "Absolutely Everything About Animagi" - was extremely helpful, it's instructions could sometimes be quite confusing. They had already misinterpreted them more than once and ended up doing the exact opposite of what the instructions had actually meant, so Grace decided to take the safe route this time and cross-check the instructions for their next step with another book.

Their current book stated that they should hold a mandrake leaf in their mouths for an entire month, and then said something about using it to create a potion and reciting an incantation on a daily basis but didn't clarify whether the potion should be made on a daily basis as well as reciting the incantation.

After wondering through the aisles of the library for a solid twenty minutes, Grace finally found a second Animagus book that contained the instructions to becoming one (the majority of the schools Animagus books were all just about what an Animagus actually is and the differences between Animagi and Werewolves).

It turns out that the potion should be made after the mandrake leaf has been in your mouth for a month, and only the incantation needed to be said on a daily basis according to "So You Want To Become an Animagus?". Grace decided to borrow the book as well in case it was needed again for cross-referencing, and joined the long line to Madam Pince's desk. It was nearing the end of the school year, so many students had decided to get their holiday borrowing over and done with, meaning that she would have to wait at least another half an hour before she could leave.

As she waited in the line alone, Grace's mind wondered back to Australia. All of her relatives on her mother's side were still down there - her aunties and uncles and cousins that she hadn't seen in over four years. Her mother still exchanged letters with them regularly.

She'd never had many close friends back in Australia either. The wizarding community there was small - practically non-existent - so finding another young witch or wizard at her school with similar interests had been tough. In fact, her closest friend had been a dark haired muggle girl who lived next door, whom Grace still wrote to her occasionally.

Things were quite different at Hogwarts however. She had James, Peter, Sirius, Remus, Abbey, Sam, Ely, Lily and countless other students who she got along well with.

It was strange, having four boys as her best friends, especially as she got older. In Australia, all of her friends had been girls save for one small boy who was half her height and rather annoying.

It hadn't passed her attention that her friends were quite attractive either. In fact, a growing percentage of the school's population seemed to have noticed as well, as Grace had found out from overhearing multiple conversations in the girl's dormitories about James, Sirius or Remus, and on one rare occasion, Peter. The boys themselves however seemed relatively uninterested. James was still focused on one Lily Evans, whom, much to his dismay, still hated him to the very essence of his being, Remus was completely oblivious to it all and Sirius didn't seem to care in the slightest, much to Grace's surprise.

But Grace had always thought of the boys as her best friends, brothers even, but nothing more. Or at least, that's what she told herself they were. James, Sirius, Peter and Remus were her best friends. Remus was her best friend.

Ever since the school holidays between their third and fourth years, she had been experiencing strange feelings towards her friend that she elected to ignore. Remus was her friend - she didn't want to make anything awkward, and besides, even if she wanted to act upon said feelings, she had absolutely no idea how to go about it. Those kind of things were very much foreign terrain, so Grace decided it was best to just ignore them and avoid the subject all together.

Abbey however had no problem openly discussing her growing feelings towards a certain friend of hers. "Sam probably doesn't even like me like that. He probably doesn't even like talking to me. He only hangs around me because the rest of the Hufflepuff house is scared of him." It turns out that Abbey was quite the worry wart when it came to things like that, so Grace had to frequently reassure her that Sam definitely did like talking to her and that she needs to calm down.

"Next!" called Madam Pince, causing Grace to shake her head lightly before placing her book down on the desk.

"Name please."

"Grace Thorne."

Grace watched as she scribbled her name and book title onto a long piece of parchment and a date appeared next to it - the due date.

"It's due the first day back of school. Next!"

Grace quickly scooped up her book and hurried out of the way, heading to the common room to meet the others. It was a Friday night and the four of them had decided to plan out the next stages of their Animagus studies before the school year was over.

"So what's next, Professor Thorne?" asked Sirius as soon as she entered the dormitory. "Am I nearly ready to turn into a dog?"

"But I thought you already were one, Sirius," James quipped before Sirius

"Hey!" Sirius shouted, before jumping on top of him and wrestling his friend.

"Mr Potter! Mr Black!" Grace cried in her best imitation of Professor McGonagall, which was quite easy due to the amount of times she had heard her say their names.

"Sorry Professor."

"Won't happen again Professor."

"You bet it won't," she warned them sternly, before breaking into a grin. "Now, have any of you got any spare mandrake leaves lying around?"

---

what the actual frickity pickity was that
Also sorry for the lack of updates, I had exams and drama performances and such so there has literally been no time.
And even more bad news: since my laptop is a school laptop I have to give it back next week for the school holidays and don't get a new one until the 20th of January which means that updates will be extremely slow. I'll try to keep writing through my phone or something but we shall see. I'm sorry in advance.
-Grace