Winter break had officially started, and many students had left the school. This meant that Draco would be contacted by Sirius soon. He did not, however, expect to be contacted by the means of a Patronus.

He was randomly walking around the school and was just passing the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom when a silvery dog came bounding.

"I don't know how Harry could have gotten the map, but at least Peter doesn't have it. On a different note, it is time for our next meeting. I trust you have learned as much as you can about your animal. Same place, same day, same time. You know who I am."

Draco was glad for the message, but couldn't Sirius be more subtle? Someone could've heard! He walked away, relieved that no one had seen or heard the Patronus.

He hadn't seen Professor Lupin standing right behind him. The man was confused. He'd known right away whose Patronus that was. Remus had probably seen it a million times back in the old days. But why would he be contacting Draco Malfoy of all people?

Harry was clearly Harry Potter, and the map must've been the Marauders' Map. Remus didn't know how Draco and Harry had found out about the map, though. And how could Peter Pettigrew have it if he was dead? The real question was, what was the meeting about? It had something to do with an animal, apparently.

Remus Lupin could not figure out that part so he gave up. Should he bother Dumbledore with it? No, it wasn't possible. Perhaps it was another animal. Remus was getting old, after all.

Draco exited the Necessity Room after a rockout session on the guitar. He didn't really look like a rockstar, but it was still fun and a great way to take his mind off things.

He climbed the steps and as the passed the library, he unconciously reached for Following the Lifestyle: The Arctic Wolf in his bag and pulled it out. Consequently, he wasn't really paying attention to where he was going and crashed right into Granger.

"Watch it, Mudblood!" Draco said after a moment's hesitation. It was getting harder to use that word and pretend like he really meant it.

"You watch it, you big arse! Besides, my parents are squibs, not Muggles!"

"Same thing, though," Draco said, not meaning a word. "I'm surprised that they weren't disowned. Father always said that the Grangers and the Lysons were always too nice."

"Your Father this, and your Father that. Well, I'm sure he was quite nice to Voldemort!"

Draco's jaw clenched. In a dangerously calm voice, he said, "You think you know everything, do you? Don't you dare talk about my father like that."

"Or what? You'll hex me?"

Draco raised his wand and said, "I just might." He didn't miss the determination that swept across her eyes.

But thinking better of it, she stepped back a little and made to leave when she noticed something. Draco followed her eyes to his book, and he quickly shoved it into his bag.

"Go," he barked, "before I keep my promise of hurting you."

"I know you think I don't notice you hesitating every time you call me a Mudblood these days. I don't know why you insist on acting like a complete arse, but I hope you know that if you ever harm a hair on my head, it won't end well for you."

Draco was stunned speechless. Satisfied, Granger walked away.

As Hermione left, she realized one thing: Draco Malfoy wasn't made of ice. She really wasn't sure what was wrong with this guy, but it made her suspicious...curious, even. She'd also noticed that he had been very protective of his father, especially as she remembered what happened in Lupin's classroom and what she'd overheard afterwards. Even though she didn't feel like Draco would actually hurt her, it still felt weird that he seemed to be trying so hard to make it seem that way.

That book he was carrying had also intrigued her. Why he would want to learn about the lifestyle of an Arctic Wolf was beyond her.

Hermione was glad that Harry and the Weasleys hadn't gone home, so she wasn't alone. Unfortunately, Lavender and the Patil twins hadn't gone home either ("What if the dementors come back?" Lavender had said.) The three girls had planned a sleepover and "invited" (more like forced) Hermione to come. It wasn't like she had a choice anyway, considering that two of the girls were her roommates. To be frank, Padma shouldn't have been in the Gryffindor Tower, anyway, because she was a Ravenclaw.

So there she was, stuck in a gossip circle with no Ginny to save her. It was the Hogsmeade carriage ride all over again. If Hermione heard one more word about Draco's looks, she would scream in frustration and rage.

And yes, she did have to resort to that. Saying, "Why do you three always talk about boys?" she walked down to the common room.

"You alright?" Harry asked her. He and Ron were playing Wizard's Chess while Fred and George were engaged in a game of Exploding Snap. Ginny, meanwhile, was sitting on a couch, indulging herself in various sweets from Honeydukes.

"Yes," Hermione said, "although I'm completely done with those girls. All they do is gossip, talk about boys, gossip, talk about boys, and did I mention that they gossip?"

"Don't you wish I was one of your roommates instead of them?" Ginny said, jokingly.

"Actually, I do." She flopped down onto the couch next to her redheaded friend. Quickly checking that Harry had gone back to his game, Hermione turned to Ginny.

"Who do you think is the cutest, hottest, whatever-est boy in the school?"

"Sorry?" Ginny said, her mouth full of Sherbet Lemon.

"Pretend that your a girl from outside Hogwarts and magic and whatnot. You're not blinded with bias. Don't give me that look. Everyone's at least a bit influenced by who's in what house. Tell me the truth. I'm just checking people's minds and brains here."

Ginny raised an eyebrow before replying, "You're not going to like my answer."

Hermione opened a package of Every Flavor Beans and popped a red one in her mouth. "Go on."

"Draco Malfoy."

Hermione choked on the chili flavored bean and started coughing.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Ginny asked.

Hermione couldn't say anything, but Ginny was smart enough to bark orders at the other boys to get water. Soon, Harry returned with a glass from the emergency cupboard in the common room. Hermione grabbed it with trembling hands and downed the glass.

"I'm fine," she croaked.

"What happened?" Ron asked.

"Choked on chili," Ginny answered, and Hermione could tell that she wasn't interested in sharing with her brother what she had just shared with Hermione.

"I'm going to bed," Hermione said.

"I'll come with you," Ginny offered. Once they were out of the boys' earshot, she added, "Geez, I only said that to freak you out, I didn't mean to nearly kill you!"

"So you don't think he's attractive?"

"Sure, he is, but you know there's only one boy for me." Ginny bid her farewell and headed off to her room.

Although Hermione had been shocked by her friend's honest answer, she felt she could finally admit, at least to herself, that it was natural to find Malfoy somewhat non-unattractive. The whole year did, apparently.

In the meantime, Draco was heading down to the Forbidden Forest for a quick ride on Buckbeak before his meeting with Sirius. He'd just received a message from his father that'd read:

Draco,

I am sure you are aware of Crabbe's "injury" from the hippogriff. Silly boy, does he ever pay attention in class? I'd been assigned to this case for whatever reason, and during the hearing I had to make up all sorts of lies about the dangerousness of the creatures. Buckbeak the hippogriff has been sentenced to death. This was not my choice. I am aware of your closeness with the bird and hope that you will cope with the council's decision.

Your Father

After reading the note, Draco had decided that he needed to see Buckbeak again so that was where he was headed. He knew that the bird had every right to know its fate so he told it.

He mounted the bird and said, "Buckbeak, you're a really great bird and I know that you would never harm someone one purpose. In all honesty, it's my fault you're in this position. I had told Crabbe to insult you because that might have gotten Hagrid sacked which would have outraged the Golden Trio which was my way of having them forget about their life-debts to me. I didn't plan this at all, but...you're getting executed."

Buckbeak reared back, and Draco calmed down the bird with one hand as he held on tightly with the other.

"I'm so sorry, Buckbeak. I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with the decision, but I swear that somehow, I will get you out of this mess. In the meantime, let's just go for a fly."

So bird and boy went flying.

Draco bid Buckbeak goodbye and went to see Sirius for the next part of his transformation. When he reached the black dog, it turned into the familiar man.

Draco said, "Why would you risk sending me a Patronus? Someone could have seen it! You know that Lupin, who teaches here, would have recognized your Patronus?"

"I thought it an efficient way to communicate. That and the fact that Crookshanks wasn't there...and I had also run out of parchment and ink and-"

"Alright, alright. I don't really care for excuses. It was unlikely that it had been seen, and if anyone did see it, including Lupin, he or she would probably agree that the Patronus was someone else's, not yours.

Sirius stepped forward and said to Draco, "I think you're ready for the next step. Listen carefully. The next step is the actual transformation. You must concentrate hard on the animal and must cast several spells at once. There will be three sets of spells, with two spells in each set - one verbal, one nonverbal. Can you perform nonverbal spells?"

"I've never really tried it before, but it can't be too difficult."

"Disarm me."

"You don't have anything for me to remove."

"Right, er," Sirius snapped a twig off of a nearby branch and said, "now."

Draco focused on the word Expelliarmus and when he performed the motion, the twig flew from the man's hand.

"Excellent!" Sirius applauded. "Now, you will perform each set of spells at once. The first verbal spell is the physical trait, or in other words, just the scientific name of your animal. Speaking of which, what is your exact species?"

"Arctic wolf."

"Wow. That's going to be hard to cover for."

"Tell me about it."

"So you will say-"

"-Canis Lupus Arctos."

"Exactly. The first nonverbal spell is personality. The second verbal spell is others' impression of the animal. The second nonverbal spell is your impression of other people in general. The last verbal spell is the habitat. For you, that's the Arctic. The last nonverbal is your deepest desire. You have to think of all of these words and then translate them into Latin using a spell. I hope you brought parchment and ink because you certainly won't remember all of the words."

Sirius taught Draco the Lating translation spell and let the blond get to work. He came up with the traits and spells fairly quickly:

1st Verbal: Physical..........................................................Canis Lupus Arctos- Arctic Wolf

1st Nonverbal: Personality..............................................Solus- Lonely

2nd Verbal: Others' impression of animal...................Periculosum- Dangerous

2nd Nonverbal: Animal's impression of others..........Procax- Meddlesome

3rd Verbal: Habitat............................................................Arcticum- Arctic

 3rd: Nonverbal: Person's deepest desire...................Cognatio- Family

Quick as he might be, by the time he was done it was one-thirty in the morning. Good thing it was a Sunday on which he would wake up.

"Done?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, finally."

"During casting, the caster must point at three parts of the body: head, torso, and feet, in that order during each set. We will do this step after you learn how to turn yourself back. This task is a lot simpler. All you have to do is cast a charm on yourself to make yourself always remember that you are human. This way, your human characteristics will stay. To actually turn back into a human, you have to raise your head and pretend that you are climbing up. In your head, think of your human form."

"I thought you said that becoming an Animagus would be hard."

"It took a lot longer for me to figure out exactly how that first spell worked. And that was just the start."

"Okay. I'm ready."

"The charm is 'Meminime'. Just point your wand to your brain and say it."

Draco followed the instructions and now he was prepared for the transformation.

Draco said, "Canis Lupus Arctos" while thinking "Solus" and pointing at his head. Next, he said, "Periculosum" while thinking"Procax" and pointing at his chest. Last, he said, "Arcticum" and thought "Cognatio" while pointing at his feet.

Suddenly, he was surrounded by a swirling tornado of blue light. It wrapped around him and choked him. Draco couldn't breathe. He felt pain shoot through his shins as his arms collapsed.

Then it was over. He was on the ground. But everything felt different. He opened his mouth to speak, but out came, "Awoo!"

He'd done it! He thought hard about his human form and made to climb, and the next thing he new, he was Draco Malfoy the thirteen-year-old again.

"Congratulations, Draco!" Sirius applauded. "You're officially an Animagus. An unregistered one, but still an Animagus."

"Unregistered?"

"Well, if you want, you can tell the Ministry that you're an Animagus. By 'can' I mean 'have to'. It's required that they know, but the Ministry doesn't know about me. Given the state of things and everything you've told me, I suggest you tell no one about this."

"Thanks for helping me."

"I only told you what to do. You practically did it yourself. Technically speaking, you are the youngest wizard to have become an Animagus, and you set the record for fastest as well."

But Draco didn't care about that. He was still thinking about his howl. "Sirius, people must have heard me howl."

"Don't worry. I put a charm around this area so that no one else would be able to hear. It's two in the morning, now. You'd better get some sleep."

"Yeah. Thanks again."

"No, Draco, thank you."

As Draco left, he understood that Sirius meant that he was grateful for Draco's letting him be a part of the world, both Wizarding and the world in general.

Sirius Black was glad to be back.

A/N: I encourage you all to share this book with your friends, comment, vote, and keep on reading! Thank you all so much!