╔═══════════════╗
second year,
new year, new aimee
╚═══════════════╝

Christmas passed and a new year was just the beginning 1973 was going to be her year. She just knew it. She excitedly hurried to Ravenclaw tower, waiting for Dorcas to come out, the two girls raced to the train station. To wait for the arrival of Marlene, Alice, Lily and Mary, they missed their lionesses over Christmas.

Along the way, Dorcas pestered her on the progress of her and Sirius' 'relationship' which of course she had to come clean eventually. Nevertheless, she was happy to be surrounded by the girls again, it had been fun with the boys, Evan was still determined to beat her at wizards chess. He had yet to win a game against her, she enjoyed her time with Sirius but knew it would be over soon.

'Sirius would be happy when it's over'

As they made their way to Hogsmeade station, they ran as they saw the train pull in. While the snow that coated the ground had melted the cold night air, froze the remaining melted snows. Creating a thin glaze of ice on the floor, Aimee slipped she tried to hold herself up, someone caught her arm, steadying her on the ice.

"We really should stop meeting like this,"

"Remus!" she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly as much as she missed the girls she missed Remus just as much.

"Woah, you best get your hands off his girlfriend Moony, he's glaring at you," James said, walking behind him, Sirius rolled his eyes at him.

"Did he just call you Moony?" she asked, he nodded

"Yes, just a silly nickname they decided to give me,"

"We got a lot to catch up on," Sirius said, throwing his arms over Remus and James shoulders "See you later Aims," he smiled at her, she was practically rugby tackled by Marlene, she nearly knocked her back into the wall.

"So tell me everything, has Sirius kissed you yet?"

"Nice to see you too," she said, Alice and Lily embraced her as they got off the train. "Oh my god, is that Mary?" she gazed at the bright blue-haired girl

"Hey girls, it's so good to be back," Mary said, everyone gazed at her brightly coloured hair, "What?"

"Are we going to talk about your hair or just act like it hasn't changed," Dorcas asked

"Oh, yeah I tried something different, do you like it?"

All the girls complimented Mary's hair, it was great to be back together again. Aimee wouldn't leave Regulus or Evan out though, she actually enjoyed hanging out with Evan. Despite Sirius disapproval of her friendship with him, she liked his company, it was always great to talk to someone in her common room.

***

As Sirius' first quidditch game was near, she attended the game with Regulus and Evan. Aimee promised him she would support him as well as the Slytherin team, she reached the quidditch stands with Regulus and Evan taking their seats in the stand.

Aimee hoped that Sirius could see her as she had a surprise for him, the Slytherin team flew out into the stadium first, flying around the quidditch pitch. Next were the Gryffindor team, she spotted Potter and Black right away, as the game commenced she tried to keep her excited to herself.

Though it was difficult. When Sirius spotted her she opened her jacket to reveal a red shirt, with 'Black's my star' Which caused Sirius to smile and urged him to play better than he was doing. The game came to an end when the Gryffindor seeker caught the snitch, giving Gryffindor the win.

She snuck away from the Slytherin stands racing down to the quidditch pitch she walked around the pitch to avoid being seen by anyone in Slytherin house. It would look really bad if she was publicly supporting Gryffindor over her own house.

Once she reached the Gryffindor team, she threw her body into Sirius almost knocking him over, he wrapped his arms around her lifting her off the ground, for a short moment. He smiled at her when he put her down, James shoved him.

"Go on kiss her," he said, pushing his towards her

"No I'm not going to," he moved away from her

"Why, scared are you?"

"No, we broke up, thought it would be best if we stayed friends,"

"Yeah, we didn't want to ruin our friendship," she said smiling at Sirius

"Wait you're serious?"

"Yes, I am Sirius,"

"Not you, I mean you're really not dating now?" he creased his brows confused by their decision

"Yeah, we would rather stay friends than risk losing that,"

Aimee nodded agreeing with him, but neither she nor Sirius truly felt that way. She did feel free of lying to Regulus she hated lying to him about her and Sirius, now she could tell him the truth. She just hoped that things wouldn't be weird between her and Sirius now.

They had been really close over the Christmas holidays, Sirius hoped that they could keep reading books together, he enjoyed having her reading to him. Even if he didn't listen to every word she said, he just loved the smile she had on her face when she read a book, he could look at her forever with that beautiful smile of hers.

***

Regulus had been looking for Aimee for almost two hours, 'where in merlin's name could she be?' He thought as he hurried through the halls. She promised she'd help him study, he had looked everywhere, the courtyard, the great hall, the library, the black lake, he even tried to the hospital wing. Aimee was nowhere to be found.

"Narcissa!" Regulus called to his cousin, he hurried over to her, "have you seen Aimee, I was supposed to meet her two hours ago,"

"No I haven't, maybe Sirius has seen her," Narcissa suggested, she smiled at him, he nodded going to find his brother.

Regulus knew that where ever there was a lot of noise, Sirius and his band of hooligan friends would surely be around. He was right, spotting him alone with Peter, James and Remus, they were throwing Severus book around, as he tried to get the book they would throw it.

"Here Sirius," Regulus shouted, waving his hands, he threw him the book,

"Thanks, Black," Severus said as he handed him the book

"That wasn't cool, Reg,"

"Why did you do that?" James questioned

"Slytherins stick together, seen as no one else in the school will," he said folding his arms over his chest "Anyway, have you seen Aimee?" Sirius shook his head "I thought you two were going out?"

"Nah, we broke up two weeks ago," 

"Really, I thought you both fancied each other," he laughed at Regulus

"No, she was just doing me a favour," 

"I knew it, I knew you weren't really dating," James exclaimed,

"Yeah right, Potter you believed it more than anyone,"

Regulus walked away when they weren't any help in finding Aimee, he thought he'd ask Evan, they had become great friends in the last few weeks. He hurried back to the great hall where he had seen him studying, he asked Evan if he had seen Aimee, which he too hadn't seen her.

She couldn't have disappeared, she had to be around here somewhere.

Meanwhile, Aimee was with her brothers in a room that her brothers had read about. Daniel had convinced Jacob and Theo to help her with becoming an Animagus. But they had to do teach her somewhere private, so nobody would find out what they were doing, Jacob couldn't have stressed enough how serious it was to keep it from the ministry.

"What's the number one thing we've told you?" Theo asked

"Don't let anyone find out about your animagus,"

"Yes, and what else?" Jacob asked

"Under no circumstances does our mother find out,"

"Boys, I think she's ready," Daniel said, she squealed finally she was going to become an animagus, and she couldn't wait till the month was up. "Right, you need to hold this in your mouth for a month," holding a mandrake leaf for her.

"If you swallow it or it falls out at any moment, you'll have to start all over again," Jacob explained

"Where's the best place to keep it?" she asked

"Under your tongue, is probably the best option, you can still talk with it there but I'd keep the talking to a minimum," Theo told her, she nodded placing the mandrake leaf under her tongue.

"What now?" she mumbled

"Good luck till next month," Jacob told her,

She smiled at them, they walked out of the room, she turned around to watch as the door disappeared when they closed the door. The Burke siblings went their separate ways, as they all had a class soon and would surely be late for.

She reached her Charms class, Professor Flitwick was lecturing Sirius and James for interrupting his class, she thanked them for being a nuisance. It gave her a chance to slip into class, she slides in next to Dorcas as she was the closest person with a spare seat, her presence drew the attention of Remus and Lily. She smiled at them, as they turned back to their work.

Dorcas had been dying to question Aimee about her break-up with Sirius, but something seemed off with her today. She nudged her, mouthing 'are you alright?' to which she nodded, but Dorcas did her signature brow raise to mean 'are you kidding me' she knew when someone was acting strange. Aimee scribbled on a sheet of paper.

"I'm having a bet with Evan he wants to see how long I can go without talking" Dorcas nodded but she didn't seem convinced

"That's a stupid bet isn't it?" she said, she scribbled her reply

"If someone tells me I can't do something, I determined to prove them wrong," Dorcas smiled at her, turning back to her school work.

A month had gone by, she had successfully managed to keep the mandrake leaf in a mouth, her brothers had accompanied her every night leading up to the next storm, to make sure she hadn't forgotten to cast the incantation she needed for the transformation.

Tonight was the night of the storm, Aimee had collected her potion from the hiding place in which she had hidden it. Her brothers took her down towards the forbidden forest at night, for her transformation. She held her wand over her heart and spoke the incantation.

"Amato Amino Animato Animagus,"

Aimee drank the potion, she felt a fiery pain coursing through her body, she knew the transformation was painful, but she never expected this type of pain. She had an intense double heartbeat, the image of an animal appeared in her mind speaking to her.

"You must not fear, it is too late to escape the change you have willed,"

She looked around, the world looked different around her, she looked down at two foxes and a badger. They were looking at her, the foxes ran around her. Aimee saw her feet they were fluffy white paws, she turned her head seeing a bushy whitetail.

"Merlin's beard, I did it!" she bowed down in a playful manner with Jake and Theo bouncing around as foxes.

"I'm annoyed that you're bigger than us," Daniel said, as the badger sniffed her,

She barked as the foxes ran around her the four animals ran towards the forbidden forest, Aimee chased after the foxes they were more agile than she was and managed to easily slip through the trees and climb up them. She turned her attention to the badger, chasing after him only he buried down a hole in the ground.

Using her paws to dig out the hole, only for the badger flicked dirt into her face, she shook her whole body to get the dirt off her. The foxes ran under her body, to which she struggled to turn around fast enough to catch them.

"How do you feel?" Jacob asked, sitting down with his orange bushy tail, curling around his feet.

"I feel like I run for miles," she said, spinning around chasing her tail,

"We felt like that too," Theo said, laying down on the ground, crossing his paws.

"So a dog, I wouldn't have guessed that," Danny said sitting upright scratching his stomach, with his claws

"Let's go find your wand," Theo said,

The two foxes and badger stood up, trotted at a steady pace to the edge of the forbidden forest. The white dog following behind them, the foxes shifted back into Theo and Jake, they had mastered transforming back without their wands, the badger picked up his wand, pointing the tip towards his body, turning back into himself.

The dog grabbed her wand in her mouth pointing it at her body, Aimee turned back into herself. Theo, Jacob and Daniel hugged her, walking back to the castle, they had to sneak past Mr Filch to get back to the dorm room. They waited for him to walk further down the hall. But Mrs Norris was sniffing around, Theo turned back into a fox.

Aimee, Jacob and Daniel laughed as Theo chased Mrs Norris away from the Slytherin dorm room, giving his three siblings the chance to get inside. They waited for the fox the race inside, before closing the door, Theo turned back into himself.

"We should get some sleep, and remember Aimee don't-

"Tell anyone I know,"