Jenna woke up the next morning with an uneasiness in her guts that she could not shake off. Sirius had woken up earlier than usual that day too, seeing as everyone was leaving for King's Cross station soon. He had already gone downstairs, leaving Jenna alone in the room.
Even though Molly was calling all the kids down for breakfast, Jenna remained in bed. She had leaned her back against the headboard and hugged her knees to her chest, gazing at nowhere.
But she finally raised her head and was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a soft knock at the bedroom's door. The next moment, Sirius walked into the room and closed the door carefully behind him again.
"Here," he said, walking toward Jenna with a toast in his hand, handing it to her. "It's gonna be a long journey, you'll get hungry."
"Thanks," Jenna muttered with a little smile, taking the toast from Sirius, which had her favorite jam on it.
She took a small bite as Sirius sat on the edge of the bed beside her, an obvious sadness all over his expression. Although Jenna suddenly chuckled out-of-the-blue, catching Sirius by surprise.
"What is it?" he mused, a hint of a grin appearing on his lips as he watched her curiously.
"Just thinking that we're the furthest thing Harry can have from a normal family," said Jenna, smiling sadly. "Godfather is a supposed mass murderer on the run, godmother's disguised as his best friend's cat... it doesn't get any weirder than that."
Sirius let out a little laugh before leaning forward to place a sweet and gentle kiss on her temple.
"We can be a normal family, too... maybe one day," he said, now smiling. "But I think this is way funnier."
"True." Jenna chuckled. "Anyway, are the Order members here? For the guarding, I mean."
"Yeah, everyone came here on time, but that stupid Podmore hasn't arrived yet," said Sirius bitterly, holding back the urge to roll his eyes. "Moody's going mental. Podmore has it coming, for being this reckless. This is the second time he hasn't shown up in a week. Moody's patience is growing thin."
Jenna opened her mouth to respond, but just then their eyes widened when they heard a loud thud from downstairs, and then both Molly and Walburga started shouting at the top of their lungs.
"— COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS —"
"— FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS —"
"What the hell happened down there?" said Jenna, her eyes still widened.
"God knows what..." Sirius shook his head, getting up to his feet. He then turned to face Jenna again, saying, "Finish your toast, Jenny."
Jenna gave him a teasing look. "What are you? My mum?"
But Sirius only grinned at her, saying in soft tone, "I'll miss you so much, Jenny," before leaving the room again, closing the door only half-way behind him.
After eating her toast, Jenna got out of bed and took a quick shower in the bathroom inside the room before transforming into Crookshanks, slipping out of the half-open door.
Instead of following Sirius downstairs, the ginger cat made her way toward the room in which Lexi, Hermione, and Ginny used to stay. Thankfully, only Hermione was left in the room, checking to make sure that she had packed everything.
Lexi was with Fred and George, who had bewitched their trunks to fly downstairs to save the bother of carrying them, accidentally hurtling them into Ginny and knocking her down two flights of stairs into the hall.
"Oh, there you are," said Hermione when she saw Crookshanks, smiling at her sight. The cat then got into her basket, ready to go.
Once they were all downstairs and finished their breakfast, Molly shouted over the shrieks of Walburga, "Harry, you're to come with me and Tonks. Leave your trunk and your owl, Alastor's going to deal with the luggage... Oh, for heaven's sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!"
Crookshanks turned her head at those words, and through her basket she saw that Sirius had turned into a black dog. Jenna felt furious, because once again Sirius had taken advantage of the fact that Jenna couldn't argue and stop him in her cat form.
"Oh honestly..." said Molly despairingly, "well, on your own head be it!"
Soon, Molly and Harry left Grimmauld Place to meet Tonks outside, with the shaggy black dog following after them, wiggling his tail happily as he went. He gave a joyful bark and gamboled around them, snapping at pigeons, and chasing his own tail. Harry couldn't help laughing. Sirius had been trapped inside for a very long time.
Jenna was going to King's Cross station with Moody, although he insisted on waiting a bit longer for Sturgis Podmore, who never showed up.
Once Crookshanks and Moody arrived at platform 9 3/4, Harry, Molly, and Tonks were already there.
"All okay," Moody muttered to Molly and Tonks. "Don't think we were followed..."
Seconds later, Arthur emerged onto the platform with Ron and Hermione. They had almost unloaded Moody's luggage cart when Fred, George, Lexi, and Ginny turned up with Remus.
"No trouble?" Moody growled.
"Nothing," said Remus.
"I'll still be reporting Sturgis to Dumbledore," said Moody. "That's
the second time he's not turned up in a week. Getting as unreliable as Mundungus."
"Quick, quick," said Molly distractedly after everyone had said their goodbyes. She hugged them at random, rushing them toward the train. "Write... Be good... If you've forgotten anything we'll send it on... Onto the train, now, hurry..."
For one brief moment, the great black dog reared onto its hind legs and placed its front paws on Harry's shoulders, but Molly shoved Harry away toward the train door, hissing, "For heaven's sake act more like a dog, Sirius!"
And then, for a short moment, Padfoot caught Crookshanks's eyes through her basket just as they were getting on the train, and he let out a loud bark, as if saying goodbye to her.