This Animal I've Become

She stood by the dirty window with her arms crossed, deep in thought. She was never the one for so much thinking or throwing around thoughts in her head, but lately she had found herself living up in her own mind. Her thoughts always found their way to her family which led to current conditions of the world around her and ended up with herself. Then the cycle would start all over again and repeat itself the next time she was not distracted from being shut up in her own head.

With once final glance at the bustling town below the windows’ view, she made her way back to her suitcase, or trunk as the English put it, and grabbed appropriate clothes to change into. It was quite chilly for a summer day. Once in the bathroom she pulled off her clothes and tugged on her dark blue skinny jeans and her dark gray long-sleeve shirt as slowly as possible. As soon as she pulled those articles of clothing on, she sighed and went back to her pile of clothes and tossed her old clothes on top before digging to find her leather, knee-high boots. She smiled once her hand made contact with the familiar feeling of leather and pulled out both shoes. It took her a minute to successfully fit her jeans inside the boots, but managed anyway. When she looked down at herself, she felt that something was missing from her outfit; so she stood for a second, thinking of what she could add before once again diving back into her pile of clothes for a specific item. Finally she found her long, black, knit vest and slipped her arms into the two large, arm holes.

Now fully clothed in an outfit she deemed appropriate, she was ready to explore the shopping area outside of her living quarters. She was told to not go into suspicious areas or too far away to the outskirts of the town from the heavily populated areas. Going into muggle London was fine, as long as she wasn’t alone. As much as she wanted to go exploring, she knew that it was in her best interests to follow these instructions. She had only been in the country for six hours so far; there was no need to screw it up just yet.

Before she left the room she slipped her wand into her boot, grabbed a piece of paper that had a list of things she needed, and placed a few coins of money into her jean pocket. If she wanted to grab anything while walking around, she had the chance, but she was going to be hanging around here for almost two weeks so it was alright to not buy all her things today. There were things that she didn’t have, for example, a cauldron, that she was going to have to find and they used quills? They were not in nineteenth century anymore, they could use an invention called pens or even pencils. She had no tour guide, or anyone for that matter, to show her around the place named Diagon Alley, so was free to do as she pleased.

With every step she took down the hall and down the wooden steps, she winced from the squeaks that sounded underneath her feet. This place should be called the Squeaky Cauldron, not the Leaky Cauldron she thought once she made it to the main floor, which happened to be a bar and restaurant. She took a look around and took in the appearances of all the wizards and witches who sat around drinking, eating, and having a good time. They didn’t seem to be too bothered by the dark times that were starting to arise or maybe they were just trying to ignore it all together.

The girl gave a small smile before following a small group of wizards who were passing through the room and to a small room on the side. She watched as the older man at the front tapped a brick in the wall. She was quite amazed when she saw the bricks start to move and create a doorway to the village she saw above in her room.

As they moved into the crowded street, she followed slowly behind and just took in the sights around her. There were people of many different ages and looks running around. She glanced into the shop windows, in awe at all the merchandise that they were selling. It had been years since she had ever stepped foot into a shopping alley for wizards and witches.

The first thing she decided to do was explore, just merely look around everywhere she could before it got too late for anybody to be out. She spent time going into random shops, looking at owls, even spent time in a book store, and her last stop before thinking of getting a bite to eat was a store with formal attire; dress robes for the boys and dresses for the girls.

“Prongs, stop drooling,” stated Sirius Black, a rather good looking boy with long dark hair, looking at his friend with a face of disgust. James Potter, a boy with unruly dark brown hair, snapped out of his trance before tearing his eyes from the new broom in the shop window.

“But Padfoot,” he complained looking at his friend with sad eyes, “it’s the Nimbus 1000!”

“I don’t care if it’s the bloody queen,” Sirius countered. “We still have to get your stupid dress robes and our books.”

“And if you weren’t such a girl about your robes, we’d be home in twenty-five minutes and not fifty,” a third boy, Remus Lupin, a lanky boy with light brown hair, noted tagging onto Sirius’ statement.

“But it’s so beautiful,” James sighed and turning back to the window. He placed his hands on the glass that was covered with other various handprints, mainly of children, who had also stared upon the Nimbus 1000 like it was a gift from the Gods. But frankly, James knew it was a gift from the Gods.

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other and shared a look of annoyance. “I told you we should have gone around the long way,” Remus stated calmly.

“And I told you to stand on the other side of him so that he wouldn’t be tempted, but nooooo,” Sirius shot back, his hands flying through the air as he spoke, “Know-it-all Remus wants to be right all the time.” Remus chuckled at his friend with the shake of his head as they watched James for a few more seconds. Sirius then sighed and muttered, “Let’s go before he pisses his pants.”

Each grabbed one of his two bags (he had dropped them out of shock and excitement of the new broom), before slipping their arms through the handles so their hands were free. Then both stood on opposite sides of the drooling boy at the shop window and grabbed onto his upper arms tightly. As James started wiggling, kicking and yelling in protest, the other two boys proceeded to half carry, half drag the Quidditch obsessed teen from the window. Both Remus and Sirius were taller and stronger than James, so it made it easy from them to drag him away from his favorite shop in Diagon Alley.

“Put me down!” James continued to yell as he watched his precious shop slip out of his eye sight. “Padfoot! Moony! This isn’t funny!” On the contrary, people found the scene to be interesting. Some looked upon the three boys in horror not knowing what was really going on, whereas others recognized them and laughed at their silly antics.

Once Sirius felt like they had gone a ways away, he mouthed a 1, 2, 3 to Remus, who knew what to do next. They both tossed James up a few more inches into the air before dropping him in mid-air and stepping back so that they couldn’t be grabbed and brought down to the ground like their dear friend. James’ legs and arms started flailing as he felt himself falling through mid-air, with no broom underneath him, and he also screamed; like a girl. His feet slipped against the stone pathway as his right hand went out to break his fall. James ended up landing with the most force on his butt and ended up screaming a string of curse words that made people around them glare at his use of foul language. As the pain shot through him he could clearly hear his friend’s laughter.

Sirius and Remus were still laughing when James started standing up, rubbing at his backside and fixing his round framed glasses. “That really hurt,” James whined with an almost shocked expression on his face.

“Ah-ha! Moony! Did you see his face?!” Sirius managed to choke out, his index finger shaking as he pointed at James. Remus nodded at his friend’s question as he tried to contain his laughter. “James, you should have seen your face!” Sirius continued to tease through his laughter. Remus was able to calm down quicker than Sirius, whose eyes were starting to brim with tears. James merely glared at his best friend before grabbing a chunk of his long hair and pulling him in the direction of the clothing store, with Remus trailing behind them with an amused smile.

“Hey! Not the hair! Prongs! Not the hair!” Sirius protested as his hands were trying to pry James’ away from him hair. James finally let him go after he felt like he Sirius had had enough. “Hey that wasn’t nice,” Sirius stated as he rubbed at the sore spot on his head and then proceeded to fix his hair.

“Serves you right, you wanker,” James retaliated as they continued on their way to the shop, only receiving a nudge in with the elbow from Sirius, and then an apologetic smile, which James had returned. Sirius and Remus both handed James back his bags before resituating their own back in their hands.

Finally they had reached their second to last destination of the day. As soon as they entered, the stale smell of new clothes hit them quickly. Then immediately they made their way to the right side to help James pick something out, and as quickly as they could.

Remus and Sirius tried as much as they could to help James, but he was being picky about everything. ‘I don’t like that color’ or ‘The material is way too rough’. As much as he tried to help his best friend, Sirius had gotten quite bored. He glanced around, trying to find something to entertain him. Remus was helping out James enough for the both of them, he wasn’t needed.

As if on cue, he looked to the door. Just as he looked, a girl, not too much older than himself, stepped through the doors of the shop. It was weird that he had never seen her at Hogwarts, he would have definitely noticed her, since she did appear to still be a teenager or maybe she was just a few years older. Her preferred older women anyway, they had experience. She was tall, about James’ height, if not a little taller, making her be around five feet, ten inches tall; making her a little shorter than himself. Not to mention she was gorgeous. From where he was standing she had a nice body and long dark brown hair, which from his point of view could be mistaken for black, with strands of a lighter brown mixed in nicely. He watched her carefully as she made her way to the girls side of the shop.

Sirius smiled to himself before telling his friends, “I’ll be right back.” James had waved his hand in acknowledgement and not even turning to glance at his friend, but Remus had given him a questioning look before rolling his eyes as he watched him go onto the girls side.

At his own leisurely pace, Sirius made his way to aisle that he had seen the girl walk down. He grabbed a random dress off of the rack before standing a few feet away from the girl. She was looking at light blue dress, but Sirius didn’t care too much about what she was doing at the moment, he was just interested in her.

“Hello, love,” he said holding up the dress he had randomly selected. “I think this might suit you.”

The girl turned to look at him, and raised an eyebrow before looking at the dress. It couldn’t possibly fit her, the dress was at least twenty sizes too big for her frame. “Do you work here?” she inquired before tugging on another dress that caught her eye.

“No,” Sirius replied with a smirk before tossing the dress back in a random spot. He then stepped closer to the girl, “So, got a name?”

“Yes I do,” was all she said before turning her back on him and walking a few steps away to another dress that she thought she might like.

“Would you mind telling me what it is?” he inquired, smiling with his signature grin that everyone knew so well.

She didn’t look at him, but it didn’t matter to Sirius, he liked the challenge all the same. “Yeah, actually I do,” she replied bluntly before pulling at another dress and quickly pushing it back in line with the rest. “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” she then said, knowing that he wasn’t going to fall for such a little trick.

“Like I would tell you my name without you telling me yours. Isn’t it always ladies first?” he asked rhetorically. Sirius continued on as if she had been playing along with him the whole entire time, not offended in the least. “Your accent’s different,” he noted. “Where’re you from?”

The mystery girl finally turned towards him and crossed her arms over her chest, her icy blue eyes meeting his gray ones. “Guess,” she said simply and then challenged him with a small insult, “Unless it’s too hard for your tiny brain.”

Sirius just smirked at the girl who was playing hard to get with him. “American, right?”

She smiled a true smile before replying, “You would guess correctly,” she replied before turning again and walking a few steps. The girl was silent as she browsed through the dresses, none of which particularly caught her eye in a sort of way where she would actually want to buy it. The girl didn’t converse with Sirius any longer, which confused and put him off a little, but not enough to stop him. She kept on acting as if he didn’t exist and he still followed her every step. He was close enough to see her wrinkle her nose at the dress she found appalling and give the dress the one over about twenty times if she couldn’t decide.

Soon they were going to be nearing the end of the row, and she definitely didn’t want this nuisance to be following her around everywhere. She didn’t even know his name. “Are you going to stop following me anytime soon?” the girl suddenly asked, turning to stare down Sirius.

Sirius gave her a cheeky grin before replying, “Only when you tell me your name, beautiful.”

While she rolled her eyes, a voice was calling out, “Sirius! Where the hell are you?!”

The girl watched as the boy in front of her rolled his eyes while muttering, “For the love of Merlin.”

“Sirius,” said James, holding two different dress robes in his hands, coming up behind the girl and standing to her left, not even acknowledging the fact that she was there. Well, actually he knew she was there or else he would have run into her. “You know I’m rubbish when it comes to making decisions on clothes. Come on, mate, choose one.” He then pushed out both robes towards his best friend. “This one’s all black with a white tie and vest, and the material is very comfortable. The lady said it was breathable, whatever the hell that means,” he explained holding up his right hand higher, and then switched so that his left hand was higher than his left and explained, “And then this one’s mainly all black, ‘cept the shirt’s white and there’re no suspenders, which is a plus. But the material feels kinda wonky. Feel it.” He shoved the second set of robes even closer to Sirius who rolled his eyes and felt the material anyway, just to please his babbling friend.

The girl was just standing there, watching this strange boy come out of nowhere, and was now staring at him strangely. Then she looked at the boy who was bugging her earlier and raised an eyebrow. His name’s Serious? How can someone’s name be Serious? Oh, it could be Sirius, as in the star Sirius. Got it, she thought. But that all didn’t really matter, she knew his name, and he still didn’t have a clue about what her name was.

“Oh yeah, it does feel kinda wonky, huh?” Sirius mused. He let go of the robe before saying, “I dunno, James, they both look pretty good. Moony picked them out didn’t he?”

James glared at the grinning Sirius, “I helped. Now choose you bloody prat.”

“Come on, Sirius. Choose one,” the girl teased with a mocking smile, rubbing in the fact that she knew his name now.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something to her about her taunting, but then stopped himself when he noticed that she had said his name. James had said his name and in turn she knew what his name was. Sirius glared at James who gave him a look of confusion. As Sirius was about to say something else a voice cut him off, “James, why did you disappear on me like that? One second you’re there and the next you’re gone!”

Remus breathed deeply as he walked down the aisle, breathing in an intoxicating scent that he had never smelt before, making his senses go haywire for a second before shaking his head, and stopped in between Sirius and James. He looked at James then Sirius, then looked at the last person who was completing their half circle in the aisle and involuntarily took in an unnoticeable sharp gasp. He stared at her for a second. Was she the origin of the wonderful scent that made his senses go crazy? Remus thought that she was beautiful, but then again she had to have some kind of looks for Sirius to look at a girl; well, actually no, anything with legs and breasts was what Sirius was attracted to, but that was beside the point. He couldn’t help admire her long dark brown hair, icy blue eyes, and freckles that were showered over her face. He reckoned that she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. In other words, she was just another girl he could cross off his short list of the few girls that he wish he had a chance with.

“Hi,” he blurted out when she looked at him, and blushed lightly at his own speech. He then shook his head at himself slightly, “Who are you?” Surely he would have noticed this girl before if he had seen her at Hogwarts.

“Yeah,” James then said turning to the girl beside him, whom he was finally taking notice in. “Who are you?"

“Who are you guys?” she then replied, with genuine curiosity and raised eyebrows. With just four words spilling from her mouth, Remus had taken an interest in her accent, it seemed to be American, but had hints of different pronunciations laced with her words.

James placed both robes in his left hand, stuck out his right hand, and said while smiling broadly, “My name’s James Potter.” She smiled at his enthusiasm and shook his hand.

With a smile still playing across her lips, Remus could have sworn he felt his heart stop. “Remus Lupin,” he managed to say and held out a slightly shaky hand. The shakes, he determined, was probably not noticeable. He felt his blood rushing through his veins as she clasped his hand and a small shock being sent through him when she smiled at him.

She then looked at Sirius expectantly. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Sirius caved. “Sirius Black,” he said solemnly, knowing that he had lost their little battle.

“I’m Addie Ferrari,” she then said with a small smile.