Of Apples and Oranges

II: vii: Teacher's Pet

Draco was dismissed from the infirmary after Madam Pomfrey had magically brought the gashes back together and bandaged them up. As per the usual, Draco was still moaning about it all day. Especially whenever he saw that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were around. When he caught onto the fact that Aurum, Vincent, and Gregory had noticed this, he began showing his cast off to a couple of Slytherin girls. Draco got out of all his classes because of his arm, but was still summoned to Lupin's room alongside Aurum.

He arrived by Aurum's side in time for Lupin to show them what he said was sure to be a surprise. He stood in the center of the room with all the tables removed. A large, black dog sat beside him calmly. Of all the things they could have seen, Sirius Black, transforming from the dog and into his human form was not one they expected.

The man who was just a dog was extremely raggedy. His ebony hair fell over his shoulders in a state of disarray, and he looked as if he hadn't shaved in years. His clothes didn't really fit, they looked too big, but just right for Professor Lupin.

Draco screamed and attempted to run off from the two men, but Aurum dragged him away from the hinge of the door. It was easy seeing as he had only one available arm.

"I'm sorry this comes as such a shock, but I'm here!" Sirius shrugged with what looked to be a genuine grin. His laugh seemed so too, rather than the maniacal one Aurum would have assumed he'd have.

Aurum stood by the door with Draco, a safe distance, but one close enough to begin questioning. "What is going on?" she began.

"I helped Sirius into the castle. We've been searching for Peter Pettigrew." Lupin explained. "I thought I might be able to trust the both of you. A friend of Aurum is a friend of mine."

"Pettigrew's dead, I thought," Draco said, shaking his head. "You must be mad! Stark raving mad! You're all loony if you think I'm staying here!"

"Let's just hear him out, Draco." Aurum kept her grip on her friend. "You're a murderer, Mr. Black, if I may be so bold. Why should we trust our lives with you?"

"Because I never killed anyone. It was Peter Pettigrew who killed those muggles. He cut off his own finger, turned into a rat and ran away." it was Sirius' turn to explain.

"What brings you here?" Aurum asked.

"We're using a student's cat to try to find him, but we're not having much luck," Sirius said. "I just know one of the student's pets is a rat that looks just like him."

Draco threw up his free hand. "Now I totally believe you." he deadpanned.

"Animagi are what I'm trying to teach you two about. The first thing you need to know are the identifying features of an animagi," Lupin said. "When you know someone well enough, it's easy to tell who they are as an animal."

"What color is a rat?" Sirius asked as if he was a teacher asking a class.

"Well, some can be brown, some can be grey, black even. What does this even matter?" Draco shook his head.

"How many fingers do they have?" Sirius followed up.

"Four, I thought." Aurum scratched the back of her head. Maybe it was five, she thought. Six wouldn't be out of the ordinary, she supposed.

"That's right. So what if I told you that rat was missing a pinky?" Sirius crossed his arms and smirked.

"If I had seen him, I might believe you. Then again, this could all just be some crazy story you're winding up to make us believe you. I really should just report you both to Dumbledore." Draco drawled.

Aurum stroked her chin. "A lot of good that'll do you. Not saying there's anything wrong with Dumbledore—"

"There's a lot of things wrong with Dumbledore." Draco chimed in.

"—but that would be an Order reunion. Typically, everybody remembers the Order and what happened. My grandmother was shocked to hear Sirius Black had betrayed James and Lily Potter. She wouldn't stop going on about it when he came back onto the news out of Azkaban." Aurum explained. "It was incredulous to us all, and only those close really knew what happened. So what happened, Professor Lupin?"

Draco stepped back from Aurum and stared at her with his mouth agape. "Why him? He just brought an escaped prisoner into our school!"

"Because that's his boyfriend. If anyone would know," Aurum turned to Lupin. "it would be him."

Lupin promptly ignored Draco's oddly high-pitched shriek of terror at the thought of the two dating and began explaining what happened between Sirius and Peter. "Sirius was the secret-keeper for James and Lily, but he felt it too obvious and left it to Peter. When Peter told You-Know-Who of James and Lily's location, Sirius set out to find Peter and turn him in," he said. "Peter, being the coward he always was, turned into a rat, cut off his pinky, and killed thirteen muggles behind him with a curse to frame Sirius."

"I wish I had killed him. It was too dangerous of a place, however. All the muggles about." Sirius looked off to the left. "We knew he never had a brave bone in his body, but we never thought..."

Aurum clapped her hands together loudly and brought them to her chin. "Well, I believe you! Not sure about Draco."

"I don't, but I'm not going to leave you alone with them," Draco said under his breath to Aurum. He sighed and looked at Aurum's pleading eyes. "If you really trust them, I suppose I should as well."

"We'll teach you how to become an animagi if you bring us the rat." Sirius pointed at Draco.

"No, no we don't expect you to do that." Lupin waved away the pair's fears away.

"Yes we do." Sirius affirmed his statement. Lupin shook his head.

"Why me? Why not her? She's the one that's going along with this!" Draco gestured towards Aurum.

"Because she doesn't need to become an animagi. It's you who's supposed to keep her stable as a werewolf. That is, unless you aren't friends?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. Lupin spastically waved his hands out of the sight of Sirius, mouthing, "No."

Draco bit his cheeks and looked down, his face ruby with anger. He looked back up at Sirius with an exasperated sigh. "Fine! We are friends so I'm going to take your cruddy lessons to help my friend. Okay?"

Lupin elbowed Sirius. "He kind of reminds me of you."

"Hot-headedness runs in the family." Sirius snickered.

Lupin cleared his throat after laughing so much with his significant other. "We're still going to teach you, don't worry. That's just Sirius talking. You can leave getting Pettigrew to us. Of course, we'd be highly appreciative if you did, but it's no fee."

"Sirs, if you want Ronald Weasley's rat, I'm sure we could probably get it better than you since you're a teacher and a wanted murderer." Aurum nodded, happy with her own plan.

"In that case, your first lesson is now!" Sirius exclaimed happily. "How do you tell apart an animagi from a normal animal?"

"A distinguishing mark. Like a missing limb." Aurum answered.

"Or glasses, like Professor McGonagall's cat form." Draco added.

"Meet us back here tomorrow with or without the rat." Lupin ordered. "It really doesn't matter."

"I'll never forgive you if you don't!" Sirius pointed at Aurum this time. It was actually kind of hard to tell if he was joking or not.

Draco and Aurum waved goodbye as they headed out into the hallway, but once they were back in the Slytherin Common Room, Draco breathed a sigh of relief.

"We didn't get murdered on the first day. How lucky." Draco wiped his forehead.