Chapter 24: The Price of Envy (1)

"Absolutely not!" – Remus declined firmly. 

"Why not?" – James asked impatiently – "This can help you, right? Plus, we're going to have plenty of fun!"

Glimpses of rolling hills and dense forests revealed themselves as the Hogwarts Express travelled North. Four boys and one girl were huddled closely together in one of the compartments, located in the last car of the train. It was past noon, and colourful candy wrappings were casually strewn around, giving a distinguished pop art vibe of the small space. 

"You said you wouldn't attack us if we were animals. Then, we become Animagi – problem solved." – concluded Sirius decisively. 

"I said I think I may not attack you." – Remus snapped angrily – "This is not a game. I can't risk your lives to experiment with my condition." 

"Why are you uncertain whether you would attack us?" – asked Catherine, muffing Sirius' protests by shoving a cauldron cake in his mouth.

"I've been around animals before during transformation and I haven't attacked them, but I wasn't in close proximity to be sure." – Remus answered gloomily – "Even if I won't attack animals, it might not be the case with Animagi. What if your scent is different than the scent of an ordinary animal and that provokes me? It's not like I have anyone to ask about this."

"Maybe there's information in the Library?" – Peter suggested, looking very pale and clearly wanted this conversation to be over as soon as possible. 

"There is a certain book I want to check." – said Catherine – "But it's probably in the Restricted Section, and I'm not confident there's going to be such specific information inside. I'm sure it's a rare occurrence for Animagi to hang out with a werewolf."

"Isn't it more important to find out how to become Animagi in the first place?" – James asked seriously. 

"That's why we need that book." – nodded Catherine – "Unless one of you can get this information from someone else?"

"Isn't McGonagall an Animagus?" – Sirius asked, finally managing to swallow the cauldron cake – "I remember she showed us last year how she could turn into a cat."

"Indeed!" – confirmed Catherine – "But I seriously doubt she would provide second-years with detailed instructions. If we were studying for the NEWTs – maybe, but if we show too much interest now, she might get suspicious. Then it's going to be twice as hard to do it, having a teacher on our trails." 

"Wait, I can't believe you're actually planning on continuing with this madness!" – protested Remus, looking from one face to the other in utter disbelief. 

"Maybe I just want to be an Animagus." – grinned James – "How would that concern you, Remus?" 

"You know very well what I mean." – argued Remus – "It must be extremely hard and dangerous to transform into an animal, especially for such young students like us."

"We can definitely do it! Right, Flame?" – laughed Sirius.

"Most likely, once we find out how to." – nodded Catherine. 

"You're all unbelievable!" – sighed Remus, throwing his hands into the air with frustration – "Anyway, I doubt you would be able to find out, let alone do it. It's just too hard. That's why Animagi are rare."

"Challenge accepted!" – chuckled James and stood up stretching himself. 

"You should have more confidence in your brothers, you know?" – teased Sirius.

"Did I miss anything? Are we all siblings now?" – mocked Catherine, looking at Sirius' displeased face. 

"I don't have any siblings," – said James – "therefore, I'm on board with what Sirius said. We've been through a lot together already, and I feel you as close as family."

"Being close with someone is not a necessary condition for being your sibling." – Catherine stated flatly and gazed through the window. 

"It's true." – agreed Sirius – "Hence, I prefer my chosen family than my blood one." 

"In general, or just because you're agitated by your brother coming to Hogwarts this year?" – asked James with a mischievous spark in his hazel eyes. 

"Regulus has nothing to do with it." – scowled Sirius.

"Your brother's coming to Hogwarts?" – asked Peter with curiosity.

"Yeah, the golden boy is the Black's family latest hope for glory. Obviously, after the 'blunder' of me being sorted into Gryffindor, they are all pretty tense for little bro's Sorting Ceremony." – sneered Sirius. 

"What is he like?" – asked Remus.

"Regulus? Proud, self-centred, obnoxious, and of course dedicated to the noble cause of keeping the family blood as pure as possible. Toujours Pur! That's our family motto." – responded Sirius bitterly. 

"Sounds pretty Slytherin-ish to me." – noted James.

"This wasn't how it was supposed to be." – said Catherine contemplatively. 

"What do you mean, Flame?" – asked James. 

"I mean, Salazar Slytherin was initially looking for cunning, ambitious, resourceful students who haven't always played by the rules." – continued the young witch. 

"Yeah, and later he went bonkers and started preaching about Pure-blood ideology." – said Sirius sarcastically. 

"I wonder how that happened." – mumbled Catherine mostly to herself. 

"Who cares?" – snapped James – "What's important is that every dark wizard attended that damn house."

"This might be a little bit of overstatement." – said Catherine with a smile. 

"I would never understand why you keep defending the Slytherin House, Flame. Especially when you see how its members keep treating you." – exclaimed Sirius, annoyed. 

"Not every person who has ever studied there was the same, Sirius." – insisted Catherine, disregarding the snort of derision, coming from her friend. 

"Plus, I may have more in common with Slytherins than you think." – she added softly, staring through the window at the tall mountains in the distance. 

*** 

Regulus Black ended up in Slytherin, fulfilling his family's wishes and expectations. Catherine couldn't help but notice that despite his nihilistic attitude towards the fate of his sibling, Sirius was still disappointed. He compensated it by being loud with his jokes and even louder with mocking Slytherins. While this behaviour was extremely immature, the young witch somehow felt for her friend, thinking about her own turbulent relationship with Greg. 

It was good that the start of the term distracted Sirius from dwelling on his family situation and he put most of his efforts into practicing for the upcoming Quidditch tryouts. James had also decided to try and secure the position of the new Gryffindor's Seeker. Therefore, the two of them spent every free hour they had on the Quidditch pitch, most of the times accompanied by Peter who was extremely excited about the possibility of his friends becoming Quidditch players. 

Remus and Catherine joined him on the stands a few times, but they quickly got bored and a little embarrassed by the squeaking Peter, who was jumping up and down on his seat. So, by mutual agreement, they returned to pursuing their own interests. In Catherine's case, that involved searching in the Library for any useful book on how to become an Animagus. Unfortunately, she didn't have much luck. The general information on the subject was not enough to even find out where to start. The young witch often glanced longingly at the back of the library where the Restricted Section was, but she had no means to enter at the current time, and she doubted any professor would sign a permission for her.

Furthermore, Catherine was having enough on her plate already with the new and harder lessons the second-years encountered in every class. The girl was particularly motivated to advance her Transfiguration skills. This was easier said than done. The Gryffindors spent their first week discovering entirely how much they had forgotten during the summer. Catherine was forced to admit that it was also the case for her, although she was catching up much quicker than most of her classmates. 

Mary MacDonald was almost in tears after spending thirty minutes trying to turn a copper coin into a firefly without any success. Lily attempted to help; however, her instructions didn't make much of a difference. The coin went all dark and deformed but didn't show any signs of life. Professor McGonagall was very unhappy and gave poor Mary additional homework. Catherine noticed that her classmate spent every evening in the Library, although it was doubtful how effective that strategy was because she looked rather stuck and panicked most of the time. 

On the other hand, Lily was once again giving Catherine the silent treatment after their brief encounter on Diagon Alley. The black-haired girl thought that her friend might appear very sweet and nice, but she did have a mean streak. For example, Lily made a point to purposefully demonstrate friendliness with Snape every time Catherine or Sirius were nearby.

During one of the next Transfiguration classes the Gryffindors were supposed to turn a raven into a water goblet. 

"Don't forget students, the incantation is Vera Verto." – reminded them the teacher while walking around the classroom, stopping here and there to correct someone's wand movements. 

Catherine needed just two attempts to make the spell work. She was exploring the ordinary glass goblet on her desk, wondering if she could have transformed the bird into a silver goblet instead, when she noticed Mary was looking around helplessly. Her chestnut hair clung to her sweaty face, and her brown eyes were brimming with tears. 

"Sirius," – whispered Catherine, poking her friend who's been sitting in front of her next to James – "Can you create a little distraction, please?" 

The boy didn't turn around. He casually knocked his quill off the desk and, when he bent down to pick it up, used the opportunity to ignite a faux firecracker. It exploded with a magnificent loud bang, creating complete chaos and ruckus. While the Transfiguration teacher was attempting to figure out what had happened and determine if James and Sirius were somehow hurt (which they were claiming with a true theatrical dedication), Catherine quickly left her seat next to Remus and crossed the classroom. Mary was sitting beside Peter that day, just in front of McGonagall's desk, so she could observe their work more closely. That didn't seem to improve the performance of the two Gryffindors, because Peter was also in deep trouble, considering his goblet had spawned feathers. 

"Move!" – ordered Catherine shortly and took Peter's seat next to Mary. 

The other girl looked at her classmate in surprise.

"Catherine, what…" – she tried asking. 

"Shh, quickly before McGonagall sees us." – Catherine whispered, grinning – "You're doing it wrong. You put too much effort into the wand movement, and this disrupts the length of the magic waves. In Transfiguration, you need to let the magic sink into the object and envelop it; there are no sudden movements. Try again and picture what I told you in your mind." 

Mary paused for a few moments then pointed her wand towards the raven in a much slower manner.

"Verrra Verto." – she said looking how the bird flapped its wings impatiently. 

"Try again, but this time do not prolong the first part so much." – instructed Catherine, throwing a glance at McGonagall who was currently scolding Sirius for wasting her time after apparently not finding any visible injuries.

"Vera Verto!" – said Mary again.

This time her bird turned into the desired goblet without fail. Mary gasped in surprise and relief. Catherine dashed to her desk just in time because the Professor finally turned her attention back to the rest of the Gryffindors. 

"Enough of this nonsense! I'm going to find out who did that and rest assured that they are going to be severely punished. There's a lot to learn in my classes and you need to approach them with the necessary determination and hard work. Let's see how much you progressed on the task." – said the teacher going back to her desk, her beady eyes stopping on Mary. 

"Good job, Miss MacDonald!" – said the Professor after inspecting the goblet – "I see that the extra work I assigned to you and the closer monitoring did pay off. You should keep on the good work. Five points to Gryffindor." 

Mary's face became bright red, and she looked in disbelief at her Head of House. 

"You owe me one." – whispered Sirius with a grin.

"Like you didn't enjoy it." – Catherine whispered back.

"I did, but that's not the point." – he insisted. 

"Okay, okay. We shall see about that." – Catherine shushed him, noting down the topic of the essay they needed to write for next week. 

That evening while the Gryffindor second-years were hanging in the Common Room and most students were laughing at Sirius' jokes, Catherine felt someone gently tugging her sleeve. She turned around and saw Mary who was standing there, smiling timidly, holding a small box in her hands.

"Hi." – she said.

"Hi, Mary." – answered the black-haired girl eyeing the white box – "Can I help you?"

"No, I mean yes." – stammered the other girl – "I wanted to thank you for today, you really helped me a lot and I have such a hard time with Transfiguration. These are banana muffins my nana sent me this morning. I want you to have them." 

"Oh!" – exclaimed Catherine, feeling uncomfortable – "I thought you could use some help and you really don't need to mention it. I can't take your muffins, though."

"Please!" – said Mary imploringly – "Share them with Sirius and James. I know they helped you take McGonagall's attention away from me." With this Mary shoved the box into Catherine's unwilling hands and went to sit next to Gwyneth Jones, who was chatting happily with a few older boys. 

"These are some nice muffins, I'm telling you." – said Sirius, enjoying the last bite of his cake – "Totally worth the trouble."

"I didn't do it to get a reward." – protested Catherine. 

"You could have helped me instead." – complained Peter.

"What are you talking about?" – snapped Catherine – "You were right next to Mary; couldn't you also follow what I told her?" 

"I couldn't undo the transfiguration I had already done. I just needed to remove the feathers from the goblet." – insisted the boy.

"Yeah, just that." – laughed James – "Except your goblet was still croaking too." 

"Whatever, you're not entitled to my help. I'll do it if I feel like it." – snarled Catherine and left for the girls' dormitory. 

Once alone, she undressed and put on her pink nightgown. Then the girl stood in front of the mirror, unbraiding and brushing her straight, ebony black hair that almost reached her waist. 

"You're really weird, you know?" – she heard a voice that startled her, making her jump and look around.

"For how long you have been hiding there?" – asked Catherine, looking at Lily, who was now sitting cross-legged on her bed.

"I wasn't hiding, I was just here reading at peace. It's too loud downstairs." – answered the red-headed girl – "It was really nice what you did for Mary today. But I wish you didn't have to cause such chaos to do so."

"I did what I felt was right." – said Catherine flatly. 

"That's the thing. You always do what you think is right and sometimes you are just wrong!" – Lily exclaimed looking at her friend intensely. 

"Are we still talking about today?" – Catherine asked, irritated. 

"I guess what I wanted to say is… I'm tired of being angry about your fights with Severus." – snapped Lily – "I don't want to hear about them. I don't want to witness them. I don't want any of you to badmouth the other one."

"Suit yourself." – said the black-haired girl, climbing to her bed – "But I also want you to stop defending him in front of me." 

"Okay, okay!" – Lily gave up – "Gosh, Daisy, why can't we all just get along and be friends?"

"I guess it's just not how the world works." – mumbled Catherine groggily.