Crookshanks | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 22

After spending the night with Sirius in the Shrieking Shack so he wouldn't have to be alone, Jenna turned herself back to Crookshanks the following morning and left the Whomping Willow.

She made sure to make Sirius promise not to sneak out of the Shack too often, even though Jenna knew that Sirius wasn't one to be shut up somewhere for too long and couldn't take it, specially after being locked up in Azkaban for twelve years.

Jenna also promised him in return that she would bring food to him every night, enough for a whole day; Mickey was proving as helpful as the old days, happy to give Jenna a full basket of food every night after curfew.

That day was going to lead up to a night with the full moon, which meant that Remus was transforming tonight. Jenna was planning on staying the night with him in his office, although before she was supposed to be headed off to there, Jenna decided to take another chance to try and catch Pettigrew, although this time in a different form.

Jenna waited until the common room had emptied that day as everyone went down to the Great Hall for breakfast before heading off to their classes. So with that, she closed her eyes and focused, returning back to human from her cat form, though she did not take her own face. Instead, she transformed herself to a boy in Harry's dorm; Seamus Finnigan.

With that, she hurried upward and toward the boys' dormitory, entering the door belonging to the third years, where she had been kicked out of by Ron on many occasions.

Quietly as she looked around her, Jenna slipped inside the room in Seamus's form, closing the door behind her slowly as her eyes roamed the dorm. But she came to a pause and she smiled to herself when she thought back of all the times she had snuck up into the boys' dormitory.

One time it was on her sixteenth birthday; she had come up here to see if James had gotten four Quidditch World Cup tickets as well, only to find James and Sirius going in circles with their Gryffindor ties wrapped around their heads like headbands as they chanted and did some sort of a war dance, meanwhile Remus and Peter cheered them on.

She also was reminded of the time she had snuck up there to steal the Marauder's Map. At the time, Jenna had been going on Occlumency lessons in Dumbledore's office, so she wanted to magically erase her name from the Map so the boys wouldn't find out where she was going.

Although that very same night Jenna had bumped into Remus — who was up to go to the bathroom — and had woken the other three boys up. She then had to come up with a lie and say that she'd had a nightmare, which only led up to a little spat between Remus and Sirius that night.

But Jenna then shook her head to come back to her senses, remembering what she was there for. So she immediately walked toward Ron's side of the room, beginning to search his trunk or anywhere else for Pettigrew.

Jenna even had her wand in her hand, ready to use the killing curse on the filthy rat if she got the chance and found him. But luck wasn't on her side that day, because as it seemed Ron had been carrying Scabbers in his bag again.

"Damn it," Jenna muttered under her breath in Seamus's voice, running a hand through her now-short hair.

Although she let out a gasp and jerked around abruptly when she heard the door to the dorm open up. She was so caught off guard that she didn't have the time to transform herself back to Crookshanks, because it always took her at least a few seconds to be able to fully change.

For a second she was scared that Seamus was the one who had entered the room, although she let out an inaudible sigh in relief when she saw that it was Neville Longbottom.

"Seamus?" Neville took aback. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Er... I was looking for a book," Jenna said, pretending to be looking around. "But now come to think of it, I think I've — um — I've lent it to Harry, so... I better get going back to class —"

"I-I came here to get my book too," he offered her a little smile, before frowning lightly in confusion. "But — I thought I just saw you downstairs... how did you get up here so fast?"

Jenna had the urge to Confund him. That was the easiest way to deal with the situation. But she found herself unable to do so, because his little nervous smile reminded her of Alice.

"Well, I know a fair few shortcuts up to the Gryffindor tower," said Jenna in Seamus's voice. "Now why don't you get your book and go down, Neville?"

     After Neville left the room, Jenna let out a sigh and sat at the edge of one of the beds. It was unbelievable how much she missed her friends. Lily, Marlene, and Alice...