The Pureblood Princess | Sirius Black

|7| Iolanthe Peverell's Guide to Animagi

"Wearetryingtofigureouthowtobecomeanimagibutweknewyouwouldbemadifyoufoundoutsowedidn'ttellyouandwearereallyreallysorrybutwewerejusttryingtohelp!" Sirius said quickly in one breath.

"Uh... the only thing I really picked up out of that was 'animagi'" Remus said, slightly confused. Remus was under the impression that Adelaide and Sirius were plotting some big end of year prank without him and the others. He had no idea how animagi could be involved, though admittedly it didn't seem too out of the blue for those two.

Adelaide glared at the ineloquent best friend panicking beside her, took a deep breath, then spoke slowly, calming, and confidently. "Sirius and I have been researching how to become animagi so that we can be with you and help you during your transformations." 

Remus stared at them blankly for a moment, trying to wrap his head around this fact, then he sprang into action.

"No. No no no no no NO. nope. Not happening. Absolutely not. You can't. You shan't!" Remus ranted. He was now pacing back and forth across the common room, hands running through his sandy brown hair.

"We shall!" Sirius said much too happily.

"You shan't!" growled Remus, werewolf temper rising to the top, or maybe it was just his normal temper— either way, he was quite upset. "I refuse to let you put your lives in danger just for me."

Adelaide shushed Sirius with her hand before he had a chance to respond. "First of all," she began. " You are our best friend, and we will put our lives in danger for your sake as much as we bloody well please. It's part of the deal. Second of all, I've done a ton of reading on the subject and we would actually be safer if we were able to become animagi."

Remus opened his mouth to protest, but she ignored him and continued. "You are worried you'll attack one of us, right? Accidentally turn one us into a you-know-what?" Remus didn't reply, but it was evident from his face that this was the truth. "Well, if we were able to become animagi, you would have some company every month—"

"—Unless we turn into a dolphin or something—" Sirius said. 

Adelaide ignored him. "—And you wouldn't be drawn to attack us because we would be animals, not humans, and even if you did for some reason hurt us, we wouldn't be turned. We would have a nasty bite or something, but we would be otherwise completely fine."

Remus couldn't fault her logic, he never could. She had always been more clever than him... but he still couldn't let them go through with it. "You act as if becoming an animagus is like learning a new charm for class! It's got to be difficult and dangerous! I can't let you put yourselves in harms way just for me... not to mention that if you actually managed to figure it out you could go to Azkaban if you got caught!"

"That's part of what makes it exciting!" Sirius said grinning. Adelaide hit him upside the head.

"Honestly Rem," Adelaide said with a sigh. "We're going to do this regardless of if you agree— You're going to thank us later... Now, if you excuse me, I'm very tired and would like to go to bed." 

Remus looked exasperated that she was ending the subject like that, while Sirius looked betrayed that she left him alone with the grumpy werewolf.

***

Early the next day James and Peter were filled in on the plan and were completely onboard with the idea of becoming animagi, as expected. Remus was outnumbered and eventually stopped protesting (although he still didn't agree that it was a good idea). That evening, Adelaide joined the boys in their dorm to discuss what she and Sirius had learned so far in their hunt for information.

"So all we really know that there's a pretty complicated potion involved and that we will have to have a mandrake leaf in our mouths for a month," Sirius stated.

"That's it?" asked James.

"No, there's more! There's this really old book that we're pretty sure will give us a step by step guide," Sirius said.

"Great! What book?!" James asked.

"Er— Addy..." Sirius said looking to her for help.

"Oh! Uh—hang on... I wrote it down..." She began rummaging through her pockets. "Ah ha!" She pulled out the crumpled scrap of parchment from her pocket and held it in the air proudly, then cleared her throat before reciting the text's title. "Iolanthe Peverell's Guide to Animagi."

"Don't you mean Iolanthe Potter?"  said James. The rest of the group looked at him as if he had suddenly grown three and a half heads. He looked back in confusion. "Iolanthe Peverell married a Potter... she was the last Peverell... Stop looking at me like that!" 

"Sorry, it's just—" said Adelaide. She didn't really know what to say.

"You're related to the Peverells? As in 'The Tale of The Three Brothers' Peverells?" squeaked Peter.

"Uh... I mean... I guess... yeah... but those are just stories," he replied waving him off, anxious to get back to their Animagi plotting.

"James, does your family have any old books laying around at home?" Adelaide asked slowly.

"Oh yeah! We have a whole library! But I don't usually go in that part of the manor on account of all the doxies hiding about," he shrugged. "Little buggers hurt like hell when they bite..." 

"Do you think, perhaps they might have an old copy of an old relative's book in that library of yours?" she suggested slyly.

"I mean probably, I don't see why they wouldn't..." 

Sirius caught on to Adelaide's train of thought and grinned. "Think it'd have a book like Iolanthe Peverell's Guide to Animagi..." 

James's face lit up as he came to the realization that he may hold the key to their plan. "I think it just might..."