FicWad

Chapter 7

The three days leading up to Christmas were hectic. We had to spend most of our time brewing potions in the dungeons so that they would have time to age sufficiently. We also had to secretly tend to our 'special' potion on the third floor.

We were the only two Gryffindors remaining for the holidays, so we had the tower and the common room to ourselves.

"Hey, sleepyhead! Wake up! It's Christmas morning!" Janie's exuberant voice awakened me as she bounced on the edge of my bed.

"Huh?" I replied groggily, reaching for my glasses. "What are you doing in here!?" I gasped. "This is the boys' dorm!!"

"So? Who's to know?" she shrugged. "I got tired of waiting for you downstairs. Come on! There are presents to open!"

She bounced once more to a standing position and offered me her hand.

"I'm not dressed!" I protested.

"So? Neither am I!"

She was right. Janie had thrown on a bathrobe over her pyjamas in her haste to greet Christmas morning.

"Pull on your robe and slippers and you'll be fine. Would you like me to turn my back while you do so?" she teased, turning her back to me. "Oh look! You have presents!" she pointed to the foot of my bed.

"I do!?" I said in surprise. "Where did those come from?"

"Bring them downstairs and we'll open our presents together," Janie insisted, stepping to the doorway. "Hurry! And don't forget your gift for me!"

I rolled out of bed, donned robe and slippers, retrieved Janie's present from my trunk, and grabbing the two gifts on my bed, I followed her down to the common room.

I found that Janie had already carried her gifts down and they were piled on her side of 'our' sofa.

"This is for you," I handed her my wrapped gift. It was very obviously a book.

"And this is for you," she reciprocated. It could have been a book, judging from the rectangular shape, but it seemed lighter than a book should be.

"You first!" I insisted.

"Chess Strategies and Openings," she read the title of the book, then laughed. "Open mine!"

"I thought that since Ron's not here - well... you know..." I explained my rationale for the chess book.

"Open my gift!" she repeated, still laughing.

"A wizard chess set!?" I ripped off the wrapping, then looked up at her in surprise.

"I was thinking the same thing!" she laughed.

Janie's next present brought a blush to her face.

"What is it?" I wondered craning my neck to see.

"It's from my mother," she said, lifting the gift out of the box. "It's a training bra," she explained. "Thanks, Mum," Janie called out to the empty common room, "but I don't think I'm ready for one, yet!"

"Will you model it for me?" I asked cheekily.

"I'll model it for you if you'll model it for me!" she countered my offer slyly.

"Err - no thanks," I blushed.

"Open that one," she gave me a winner's smirk and pointed to the parcel wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with string.

I did and a pile of silky-smooth cloth spilled out. It was fine and soft to the touch and it was nearly transparent.

"What's this?" I asked in confusion.

"Look - there's a note!" Janie pointed.

"This cloak belonged to your father and he would want you to have it. Use it well," I read the note. "It's not signed," I said, handing the slip of parchment to Janie.

"This looks like the Headmaster's writing," she noted. "Remember that pass he wrote for us? This looks like his loopy handwriting."

"But what is it?" I repeated, running the soft fabric between my fingers.

"Wait! Do that again!" she commanded. "Put your hand underneath it."

I did and my hand disappeared!

"Pull it over your head!" Janie said. "It's an invisibility cloak!" she gasped as I did so. She took one side of the fabric from me and pulled it over her own head, which promptly disappeared!

"Wow!" I stared at the cloak spread over the sofa between us. "Do you realize what we can do with this!?"

"Yes! Wreak havoc!" she nodded. "But if that's the case, why would Dumbledore give it to you?"

"It belonged to my father," I reminded her quickly. "It's a family heirloom. Why wouldn't he give it to me?"

"But why now ?" she frowned, her ample eyebrows knitting together in thought. "Hmm..."

"What?" I knew that look. Something was amiss.

"Your father died ten years ago," Janie reminded me. "Dumbledore's waited ten years to give you this, when all that time you could have used it to thwart authority. Why now?"

"Because I'm more mature, now?" I offered.

"Hah! You're eleven! I was eleven once," Janie reminded me of our eleven month age difference, "and I was not mature!"

I stuck out my tongue at her - as maturely as I could manage, given that I was only eleven.

"It doesn't make sense," she shook her head, ignoring my antics, "unless..."

"What?" I repeated, desperate for a clue as to what she was thinking.

"Wear it when we go down to breakfast!" she said. "I want to test a theory!"

"What theory?"

"I can't tell you - it has to be a double-blind experiment."

"What's that?" I asked in confusion.

"Where neither the subject nor the experimenter know what's going on," she replied, dismissing the topic. "My turn to open a gift!"

She held up a Muggle flashlight - the long-handled kind with lots of batteries inside. "It's from Daddy," she explained, reading the note. "I told him how dark the corridors are at night, so he gave me a flashlight!" she laughed, shaking her head in dismay.

She pushed the button and the powerful beam illuminated the far corner of the common room ceiling - for about five seconds - before the batteries died.

"I guess Daddy forgot that part about electricity not working around magic," she sighed. "Oh, well..."

"My turn!" I said reaching for my last present. "It's from Hagrid," I read the note, then gasped as I opened the gift. It was a photo album - complete with moving wizard pictures of my parents and their friends. Some photos included me as a baby. "Wow..." I breathed as I turned the pages, pausing to study each picture carefully.

"You were a cute baby!" Janie said, peering over my shoulder. "Oh! This must be their wedding picture!" she pointed. "Your mum was beautiful!"

"Thanks," I muttered, lost in the pictures.

"Hah! My grandparents sent me another jumper," Janie said, holding it up for my inspection. "That makes two!"

"That's nice," I replied, barely taking my eyes off my photo album. She must have opened her last two gifts while I wasn't looking.

"Jamie?"

"Hmm?"

"You seem like you've never seen pictures of your parents before..."

"I haven't. My aunt - my mother's sister - hated her and there were never any photos around..."

"Maybe we should go upstairs and get dressed, then we can look through your album together until it's time for breakfast," Janie said gently. "We can't afford to be late."

So that's what we did.


"Here," Janie reached into her robes and handed me another photograph when she returned to the common room. It was just a regular, non-moving one. "It's a picture of my parents and me that I kept on my nightstand," she explained. "I can get another one and your album has lots of empty pages in the back that you need to fill."

It felt nice to sit there with Janie at my side, discovering picture by picture that I did indeed have a family. My parents, their friends, everyone was animated and waving at the camera. In some photos, my father's friends would be pranking him and my mother. In one picture I was perched atop a full-grown stag - with antlers! - in the parlor! In another I was riding a large black dog around and seemed to be having the time of my young life.

I smiled over at Janie when we came to the end. Together, we carefully fitted her photograph into the next available page.


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As eight o'clock breakfast approached, I was waiting just outside the Great Hall wearing my new invisibility cloak. Peeking around the corner of the entrance, I watched for Janie to take her place near the front of the Gryffindor table, then walked very quietly into the hall. As Janie had instructed, I walked silently past the High Table, turned around, and walked back out. I took off my cloak, folded it and stashed it in a pocket of my robes, then casually walked back in to join Janie at the table.

"So?" I whispered to Janie as I sat down beside her. "What was that all about?"

"Tell you later," she hissed back. "Care for a sweet roll?" she offered in a normal voice.


"Thank you, Hagrid," I stopped in front of the half-giant after breakfast. "That was the best present ever! "

"Took me awhile to find 'em all. I was gonna give ya sommat else but I thought you'd 'preciate seein' pictures o' yer mum an' dad more than some old wooden flute," he nodded.

"And thank you, Headmaster!" I whispered as I passed his chair. That was a test - to see if he seemed bewildered by my comment or not. The Headmaster inclined his head slightly and smiled, but did not respond verbally. That was close enough - the cloak was from Dumbledore!


"So, what was the purpose of me parading in front of the High Table like that?" I asked Janie when we were back in our common room.

"Dumbledore saw you!" she exclaimed. "No one else noticed, but the Headmaster's eyes followed you into the Great Hall and back out again. That's why he gave you the cloak now - he can see right through it! It's a trick, Jamie, don't you see? Bait you into using the cloak for nefarious purposes, then catch you in the act!"

"Why that dirty..."

"Exactly!" Janie nodded emphatically.

"We can still use it when Dumbledore's not around, though..." I considered. "I'll bet Filch can't see through it - he's a squib!"

"Right," Janie agreed. "Maybe we can use it to sneak down to the third floor. Our Animagus Revealer Potion should be ready this morning."

"We don't need to sneak to the third floor - we just act like we're heading to the library. I hope I'm an eagle," I reiterated my preference.

"We'll see. I'm going to send this flashlight back to Daddy," Janie picked up the gift that was still lying on the sofa from earlier. "Maybe he can get some use out of it."

"Wait! Let me see it!" I reached for the flashlight.

"Electricity doesn't work here at Hogwarts - it's explained in Hogwarts: A History," Janie shook her head - but she handed over the flashlight.

I unscrewed the ends and removed the dead batteries and then removed the light bulb. Inserting my wand until the tip poked through the little hole where the bulb used to be, I cast a Lumos.

"How's that!?" I grinned shining the concentrated beam around the common room.

"Wow!" Janie gasped. "Very clever, Jamie!"

See? I'm not such a slouch! Even Janie, the smartest person I know, admits it! I own this quest!

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"It's ready!" Janie announced as she examined our secret potion. "The color is perfect!" She filled a goblet and held it out to me. "You'll try it first."

"Why do I have to go first?" I asked her.

"Because you're the leader! You keep claiming that this is your quest - not mine," she smirked back. "Plus there's the fact that The Book has your name in the title - not mine. Lastly, I'm the Potions expert. If the potion's flawed somehow and you have a bad reaction, I'll be able to brew an antidote. Do you want to lie down on the floor or just lean back against the wall while sitting up?"

With that unhelpful bit of reassurance, I winced at her and took my position against the wall.

"Are you ready?" Janie asked me. "Comfortable? I'm not sure how long the trance will last."

"I'm ready," I sighed, reaching for the goblet. I downed it in one go, expecting the worst. "It doesn't taste too bad, actually," I reported to Janie.

Within minutes I was starting to hallucinate. There were animals - lots of animals. It was as if I were in a bloody zoo, except that I was the one in the cage. This was not necessarily a bad thing.

A lion wandered over to sniff at my cage, then stalked away. A lion would be cool, I guess. I hadn't realized they were that big. I would be able to scare the bejezus out of people - and then eat them!

But I was not a lion.

I looked up - in hopes of spotting an eagle overhead. Several large birds were circling - I recognized at least one as an owl. I could have been content being an owl, I guess, but none of the birds of prey bothered to swoop down for a better look at me.

I noticed some smaller things - snakes and frogs and salamanders and such. I wasn't sure whether they were eligible Animagus forms. I didn't think of them as 'animals' per se, but given a choice of animal, vegetable or mineral, they'd be animals, I guess. There were some bugs, too. I liked the way the dragonfly moved in the air. I scooted back away from a scorpion as it scurried by.

Squirrels, cats, geese, ducks, dogs, a goat, an armadillo and a ferret (or was it a cannibal?) made their appearance, but none seemed interested.

Then I saw the chicken, or rather it saw me. It was rather small - puny, even - one of those colorful little brown ones with iridescent orange and black parts thrown in. It was a bantam rooster, judging by the cockscomb on its orange head. It walked straight up to me and stopped, looking me over.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo-oo-oo-oo!" it crowed, as if to announce my Animagus form - not only to me, but to the entire world.

"Go away!" I tried shooing at it with my hands but to no avail. The thing stood there in front of my cage looking at me, its head doing that stupid bobbing thing that chickens do. "Run!!" I yelled at it. "There's an eagle swooping down at you!"

It was either too stupid to understand the danger or too smart to fall for my ruse.

Who was I kidding? If someone asked, "Which is the smartest chicken in the coop?" the correct answer would be "None of them!"

My trance ended with the memory of that ugly face staring at me, mocking me with those stupid golden eyes.

"Did it work?" Janie asked excitedly. "Did you fall into the trance? It looked like you did..."

"Yeah - it worked," I growled, shaking my head to clear it.

"Well? What did you see? What are you?" she demanded.

"A chicken - or rather a rooster," I shook my head in disgust. "A little, brown, banty rooster."

"Oh!" Janie said, obviously taken aback. "Well - that's..."

"No it's not!" I nearly shouted. "Whatever you were going to say, don't! A chicken is at the bottom of the food chain. A chicken is not useful, is not stealthy, can't fight, and it can't even fly! I'd be a sitting duck!"

Janie started laughing at my outburst. "At least a duck could swim," she giggled.

"And fly!" I added angrily. "But a chicken!? What bloody good is a bloody chicken!?"

"I could eat you, in a pinch!" she laughed. "You'd probably taste better than owl..." she trailed off in another fit of laughter.

I stood up and brushed myself off, then walked over to the cauldron and filled the goblet with potion.

"Here!" I thrust it at her. "Let's see what you are!"

"Wait a minute - let me compose myself," Janie endeavored to get her laughter under control. She sat against the wall and reached for the goblet. "It doesn't taste bad?" she asked, pausing to stare at the liquid.

"No - not as bad as I expected. Go on - drink it."

Janie downed it and handed me the empty goblet. She smiled at me reassuringly and closed her eyes.

It was fifteen minutes later when she opened them. She was not happy.

"What?" I asked.

"A snake," she replied, her expression almost fearful. "I'm not sure what kind. I'll have to look it up in the library."

"Can we trade?" I offered. "You seemed to think that a chicken would be a barrel of laughs. I could live with being a snake."

"I don't think it works that way," she shook her head, still clearly distressed. "You are what you see."


We bottled up the remaining Animagus Revealer Potion and headed off to the library. I'm not sure what Janie wanted the extra potion for, but she's the Potions Mistress, not me.

"Its skin was very dark gray with pitch black diamonds down its back," Janie told me as she leafed through a reptile guide. "Here it is! The black adder!" she pointed. "Common to Europe and Britain. Oh no! I'm venomous!"

"Well that's something, I guess," I said. "You'll be able to fight."

"The adder's bite is painful, but not usually fatal to humans," she quoted.

"At least you're not a chicken," I shook my head in self-pity.


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