It was the last day of school, and everyone was in the great hall for the end of term feast.
I sat at the Slytherin table, in between Ava and Ophelia, and across from Draco and Blaise.
I hadn't spent much time with my Slytherin friends lately, because I had been focusing on my studies, and then everything with Sirius Black.
After the feast, the five of us went down to the Slytherin common room and sat on the couches in front of the fire.
"So Draco, is your family holding a ball again this year?" Ophelia asked from her spot on one side of me.
"Ball? What ball?" I asked confused.
"Our family holds a ball occasionally. Not every year, but usually every two or three. Other than that, the ballroom is used for dinner parties and such," Draco explained.
"Oh, will there be one this year?" I repeated Ophelia's question.
"I believe so. We can always ask tomorrow when we meet mother and father," Draco said with a shrug.
"Right...anyone up for a game?" I asked, looking around at the small group.
There was a general murmur of agreement, before the real question was asked.....
"What game?" Blaise asked.
"What about Would You Rather?" I suggested.
Everyone's head snapped in my direction.
"Who what where?" Ava asked with her eyebrows raised.
"It's a muggle game. You go around, and you give two options. The person you ask has to choose which they'd rather do, or which situation they'd rather be in. It's really fun actually," I told them. I felt the need to add the last part on, since they all looked a bit doubtful when I mentioned it was a muggle game.
Ophelia shrugged, lounging against the back of the couch.
"Sure, why not. Could be fun to play something other than exploding snap and wizards chess," she replied.
After a moment, everyone agreed, and we began the game.
"Alright, who goes first?" Blaise asked.
"Since it was Regina's idea, how about she goes first?" Ava suggested.
"Okay," I said, looking at the group.
"Blaise, would you rather try to dye Snape's hair pink without getting caught, or be in Hufflepuff for a month?" I questioned, looking at Blaise, who glared at me. (A/N: No offense to any Hufflepuff readers!)
"How am I supposed to choose one of those?" he asked, rubbing his face with his hand in exasperation.
"That's the point of the game, to make it hard for the person to choose," I grinned.
"I think I'd rather try to dye Snape's hair then be in Hufflepuff," Blaise finally answered. (Again, no offense...)
"Alright, now you ask someone Blaise."
"Ava, would you rather be a werewolf, or a vampire?" Blaise asked.
After a moment of thought, Ava answered.
"I think I'd rather be a vampire," Ava answered, "then I wouldn't have to deal with the transformations."
The game continued on like this for a while, until we realized that it was one o'clock, and went to bed.
~•~•~•~
The next day I sat in a compartment with Ava and Ophelia.
We talked the entire train ride, and when we got off at the station we had a small group hug, before going off to find our families.
I made my way over to my parents, being able to easily spot them in the crowd by the white blond hair that all Malfoys have.
Draco was already standing with them when I got there, and I saw that Alan and Christine were there as well.
I suppose they would be staying with us for a few weeks again like last summer.
We flooed back to the manor and Draco and I went up to our rooms to unpack and change for dinner.
It felt a bit strange, getting dressed up for dinner. I never had growing up, and at Hogwarts you just wore your school robes. It was nice though, I was glad to be able to use all the beautiful clothes my mother had bought for me.
After I finished unpacking, I took a quick shower, since there was still plenty of time before dinner. Once I was done, I picked out a flowy dark grey dress that went down to a bit above my knees, and had short cap sleeves. I slipped it on and called for one of the house elves to help me with my hair.
She gladly obliged, and dried my hair with a snap of her fingers, before plaiting it beautifully.
I looked at it in the mirror and smiled.
"Thank you..." I trailed off, not know what her name was.
"Minney, miss," she answered quickly.
"Well, thank you Minney, it's lovely."
She smiled widely, and nodded once, before apparating away again.
I slipped on a pair of black flats and went downstairs for dinner.
When I got to the dining room, I found that I was the last one there.
"Sorry, I lost track of time," I said as I sat down next to Draco. Lucius was at the head of the table, Narcissa on his right, and Christine and Alan on the other side of Narcissa.
Draco and I sat on the other side, facing them.
"It's alright dear, we only got here ourselves a few minutes ago," Narcissa said smiling.
The house elves brought out the food and we all started eating and talking.
"So how was your school year?" Narcissa asked.
I hadn't been part of the conversation up until now, so I didn't realize she was talking to Draco and I until he answered.
"Boring, as usual," he said, with a sigh.
"And you Regina? How was your school year, anything exciting happen?"
I shot a glance at Draco, praying that he wouldn't say anything.
It didn't look like he was going to, so I answered.
"No, nothing really exciting happened. Just a normal school year."
Narcissa nodded with a smile, then went back to talking to the other adults.
After a while I wasn't hungry anymore, and started pushing my food around on my plate.
Draco looked over at me and asked if I was finished.
I nodded and we both excused ourselves, going upstairs to our rooms.
I was about to open the door to my room when Draco grabbed my arm and pulled me into his.
Not that it really hurt, he was gentle, I just wasn't expecting it.
"Draco? What's wrong?" I asked worriedly as Draco shut the door to his room.
"What? Oh, nothing's wrong, but you still haven't explained to me what happened this year with Black. I wasn't going to say anything in front of mother and father, but what happened?" Draco asked, sitting on the couch by the fireplace.
I sat next to him and twisted my hands nervously.
How was I supposed to tell my brother that I'm friends with his nemesis?
"Okay, before I tell you, can you promise you won't get mad?" I asked.
"I don't know, that depends on what you tell me. But I'll try I suppose," he answered.
I nodded, exhaling loudly before shifting on the couch so I was facing him.
"Okay, so, for the past two years, I've kinda been friends with Harry, Ron and Hermione. They're actually really nice, and we get along well. Anyway, that's why I was with them in the shrieking shack," I said.
"You're friends with Potter, Weasley, and that mud-" he started but I cut him off with a glare.
"...Granger?" he finished cautiously.
"Yes. I'm friends with them. And before you say anything bad about them, you're friends are way worse."
Draco's jaw dropped as he gaped at my accusation of his friends.
"What? What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed.
"It means, some of your friends are extremely annoying."
"Who?" Draco challenged, raising an eyebrow.
"Goyle, Crabbe, and Parkinson," I listed, staring him straight in the eye.
Draco opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so he closed it again. He repeated this a few times, looking like a fish.
"Fine, they're annoying," he admitted defeat.
"But that doesn't answer my question. What happened with Black?"
"Well, you know the reason that Black was in Azkaban. He was friends with the Potters, and when they went into hiding, he gave their location to You-Know-Who and killed one of their friends, along with several muggles," I began, and Draco nodded, "Only he didn't. He wasn't the one who betrayed the Potters to the Dark Lord, it was Peter Pettigrew, one of James Potter's friends from school. Well, he cut off his finger to make it look like Black killed him, then he turned into his animagus, which was a rat. Ever since then he lived with the Weasleys as Ron's pet rat. No one knew he was anything else until that night."
Draco was silent for a few minutes as he processed the information I had just told him.
"So, Black is innocent?" he asked.
"Yes. He and Professor Lupin wanted to kill Pettigrew on the spot, but Harry stopped them, telling them to take him to the castle and let the Dementors have him. Which is what we were going to do before Lupin transformed. You know what happened from there."
Draco nodded, then looked up at me as a thought must've crossed his mind.
"Do you still not know how you changed into an animagus?" he asked curiously.
I shook my head with a sigh.
"No, I don't. I've been trying to figure out how to change, but I haven't gotten anything so far. Why?"
"It's just, I thought maybe we could practice together? I mean, we already know you can, because you have before, and I'd like to try," Draco said.
Grateful to be off the topic of Sirius Black, I nodded quickly.
"Sure, when do you want to start?" I asked.
"Well, how about now? We can look for some books in the library that might help," Draco suggested.
I agreed, and we went to the library, searching through the shelves for anything that might help with becoming an animagus.
After about ten minutes, I heard Draco's voice from the other side of the library.
"Regina, I think I found one that might help!"
I found Draco in one of the aisles, leaning against the shelf with a book open in his hands.
He looked up when he heard me and shut the book.
"Come on, let's go back to my room."
With the book in hand, Draco led the way back to his room, and once we were there, he opened the book again and started reading aloud from it.
"It says that to become an animagus, you have to picture yourself becoming an animal. It takes a lot of concentration at first, but eventually, the more you do it, the easier and faster it becomes. So, since you already know your animagus is a snow leopard, I guess that makes it easier," Draco said.
"But I've tried that. I've tried picturing a snow leopard in my head and it doesn't work," I complained, plopping down on the floor, despite the fact that there was a perfectly good couch not ten feet away from me.
"You can't just picture the animal, you have to imagine turning into it. Becoming that animal. And you have to concentrate. Go on, try it," Draco said encouragingly.
I sighed and closed my eyes.
I pictured a snow leopard in my mind. I imagined the softness of its fur, and the sharpness of its claws, the bright blue eyes and black spots on the white fur. I imagined becoming it. After a few moments I felt my body shifting. Growing longer and shorter, and stronger, more powerful.
When I opened my eyes again, Draco was staring at me in amazement, but he also had a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
"You did it! That's amazing, I didn't think you could do it that quickly," Draco said, putting down the book.
Well thanks for the vote of confidence there Draco.
I walked over to him and nudged his knee slightly.
"What?" he asked, not sure what I wanted.
I pushed the book toward him with my nose and he got the idea.
"You want me to try?" he asked.
I nodded, and he stood up, walking over to where I was and sitting on the floor.
He closed his eyes and concentrated, staying that way for several minutes.
After a while, he opened his eyes and sighed.
"I can't do it. How did you do it so quickly Regina?" he asked.
I nudged his arm again and sat down a few feet away from him.
"Alright, I'll try again."
He closed his eyes again, and concentrated. After about five minutes, he started changing.
I grinned inwardly, since I can't really grin as a cat, and waited for him to fully transform.
When he did, he opened his eyes, and stood up. He was a pure white panther, with grey eyes, much like his own.
"Woah, this is...different..."
I had been in the middle of walking over to him when I heard him, and froze, staring at him.
My ears perked up when I heard him again.
"What's your problem?" he asked, noticing I wasn't moving.
How is he doing that?
"Doing what?"
Wait...can he...hear what I'm thinking?
"Yes, I can hear what you're thinking Regina. It must be how people communicate in animagus form," Draco said...well...thought, technically.
"That's weird..." I said. He nodded in agreement.
Suddenly I got an idea.
"Hey Draco?"
"What?"
"Do you wanna scare mother and father?"
I heard his laugh in my head, then he answered.
"Let's do it," he said.
We walked over to the door, and I managed to get it open by grabbing the knob in between my front paws and turning it.
Once that was done we went through the halls and padded quietly down the stairs.
We got to the sitting room, and stood outside the door.
I quietly poked my head in, and saw where everyone was.
Narcissa and Lucius were sitting in two armchairs, and Alan and Christine were sitting across from them on the couch.
Before I had the chance to turn around, Narcissa's head turned in my direction and she gasped when she saw me.
Her gasp drew the attention of the other three, and they turned towards me to see what was wrong.
"Dear Merlin!" Christine exclaimed, putting a hand on her chest.
Draco's head then popped up above mine, as he was now peeking into the room as well.
When he saw that everyone was looking at us, he laughed. Although I was the only one who knew he was laughing. To everyone else, it probably sounded like a purr.
Draco leapt over me and ran up to the fire place laying down on the rug and making himself comfortable.
I sighed, walking up to him and swatting at him with my paw.
He stayed where he was, simply waving his tail in my face.
Unfortunately, this caused me to get fur in my nose, making me sneeze.
I looked around at the adults and realized they were all staring at us with wide eyes.
Draco kept hitting me with his tail, so I growled and bit it, making him yelp.
He whined, so I let his tail go, but not before fixing him with a hard glare.
"What is going on?" Narcissa asked no one in particular.
I quickly transformed back, and stood up with a smile.
"Draco and I are animaguses!" (If that's incorrect, sorry. I don't remember what the plural form of animagus is)
Draco then changed back as well, and stood up.
"You're both an animagus?" Lucius asked.
"Yes, we just figured it out," Draco said as I nodded. That wasn't exactly true for me, but they didn't need to know that.
"Well that's...that's very impressive," Christine said with a smile.
"Yes, it is most impressive. Not many twelve or thirteen year olds would be able to become an animagus," Lucius agreed.
Draco and I grinned at each other, before sitting down on the other couch.
"Mother," Draco began, "are we going to be hosting a ball this year?"
"Yes, it'll be in two weeks. Which reminds me, Regina, we need to go dress shopping for the two of us. Christine, you may come as well if you like," Narcissa offered.
"Thank you, I'd love to," Christine said.
I was very excited about the ball, but also nervous. I'd never been to one, I had no idea what to do.
I guess I'll have to figure that out in two weeks.
Hello people!
Extra long chapter for you guys, cause I'm just that nice. :)
No, actually it's because there was a lot that I wanted to put before I started the next book, and I couldn't be bothered to go through it and separate it into two chapters. So there ya go, a really long chapter to end book two. I also wanted to apologize, because I realized when I started writing this chapter that I hadn't had anything with the other two characters I made, Ava and Ophelia. So, yeah, sorry about that. They were in this chapter a bit, and hopefully I'll be able to work them into the next book somewhere. If not...sorry... *grins sheepishly while hiding behind Draco*
The picture is of Draco and Regina's animagus forms, if you didn't get that...hopefully you did, but just making sure...yeah...
Anyway...hope you guys liked this chapter, please vote and comment what you think!
Thanks for reading!
Love you!
:)