Father and son landed in an alleyway near Lisa's residence. When they arrived outside of the security fence, they were once again greeted by two guards. Both wizards were let inside and saw decorations everywhere. It seems like Lisa's parents went all out for her birthday party.

"Alec!" twin voices chorused from behind him. Alec turned around and saw his two best friends. He was surprised to note that Lisa was wearing a light blue summer dress.

"Happy Birthday," Alec greeted. Severus meanwhile went over to the parents and began to talk with them.

"How has your vacations been so far?"

"Mine has been pretty good but I haven't done much of anything yet," Josh replied.

"I visited my aunt last week. Where did your dad take you? You never said in your letters," Lisa asked as they walked towards the couches.

"We went to the beach! It was so nice out there. Have you heard of gillyweed?" Lisa wrinkled her brow in thought but didn't recall hearing of it before. "It allows you to breath under water for an hour so we were able to see the fish on the ocean floor. It was very interesting to see all the different fish species." Alec said.

"Wow. Breathe underwater without scuba gear? That sounds fascinating," Lisa replied.

"My dad asked me what it was the other day," Alec recalled.

"Scuba gear?" Alec nodded. "Why?" Josh asked.

Alec smirked, "Well..." Alec went on to describe how his father ended up going on a date with Anne. "Like I said earlier, he asked me the other day what it was. That and dry cleaning because apparently the waiter spilled wine on his pants. He didn't want to tell me how the date went but I bugged him enough so he told me a bit."

"No offense, but your dad doesn't seem like the dating type," Josh said.

"You mostly see him as the teacher while I get to see his nice side, even though he will always deny being nice," Alec added.

"That's true," Lisa replied just as Severus chose that moment to walk over.

"I will be leaving now and I'll be back tomorrow at approximately four," Severus informed Alec and gave him a nod to the unasked question. "Happy Birthday Ms. Bellini, Mr. Johnson," the potions master added before departing.

"Lisa," Mrs. Bellini called. "Diner will be served in five minutes and I suggest that you and your friends wash up first."

"Okay mom," she replied before turning back to her friends and beckoning them to follow her. They washed up then sat down at the dining table. Plenty of food was set out along with several different beverages. Lisa's mother Heather and her father Alexander joined them along with Josh's parents at the table before all dug in. Afterwards, they had chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. Both Lisa and Josh got to blow out the candles, since this was their joint birthday party.

Alec handed each of them their gifts. Josh ripped into his box and was thrilled to see his favorite candy along with the Quidditch Quality Supplies gift certificate.

"It's beautiful," Lisa stated as she pulled out the silver bracelet. "Thank you very much Alec. Could you put it on for me?" Alec nodded and latched it onto her wrist.

Lisa and Josh received separate gifts from their parents as well, including some new games or movies that they asked for. Afterwards, the three friends went to Lisa's room and prepared to watch one of the new movies she received.

Alec went over to his bag and pulled out two more gifts. "Here. I wanted to give these to you both up here so I could properly explain. Open them first and then I'll answer your questions."

When Josh and Lisa opened their presents, they discovered that they both were given the same two books. One was on Occlumency and the other was the Animagus book by James Potter.

"What is Occlumency?" Josh asked as he flipped through the book.

"It basically keeps the others from reading your mind and it also helps with organizing thoughts," Alec explained.

"Is there a reason you want us to learn this?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Yes, but I cannot tell you right now. Its useful in ways other than just protecting your thoughts so I figured you both should learn," he replied.

"So what about the Animagus book?" Josh questioned. "Are we really learning to become an Animagus?"

"Yup!" Alec replied excitedly. "Doesn't it sound exciting to learn that? Only a small amount of people have actually ever accomplished this."

"I don't want to do anything illegal," Lisa said. "Aren't we supposed to register before trying anything?"

"Technically, no." Lisa looked surprised. "The Ministry does not think anyone under age would ever try the transformation. The law basically states that we do not have to register until we are considered a legal adult at the age of 17."

"Cool. Who is going to help us with this though?" Josh asked. "It should be really difficult, from what I've heard."

"My dad is going to help us," Alec replied. "He is an unregistered Animagus so don't tell anyone or he will get in trouble."

"Where did you get this book? I've read about the Potters and I don't believe that James Potter ever published a book. Plus, the Ministry controls all material pertaining to the Animagus transformation." Lisa said matter-of-factly. 

Alec laughed, "Don't worry. It's not like I bought it in Knockturn Alley or anything. Sirius gave it to me for Christmas. I had Dad use a spell to make a copy of the book for you both so you can read it. If anyone else sees the book, they will think it's nothing more than a potions text. It wouldn't be a good idea for us to get caught with that anyways."

"So what form do you think we all will have?" Josh asked. "How do we even find that out?"

"We have to make a potion," Alec explained. "Dad already bought the ingredients for all of our potions and he said it was pretty easy so we shouldn't have any trouble with it. Once you two finish the book, he said we can approach him and set up a time to make the potion."

"What happens after that?" Josh questioned.

"After that, we need to research everything about our forms. We need to learn everything we can about them before we can try anything further," Alec replied. "Once we researched, then we move onto attempting the transformation in parts. We start with changing our hands, feet hair and so on. Eventually we can try the full body transformation but that shouldn't be until summer or even next school year before we get that close. Dad says that with his and Sirius' help, we should master the transformation much quicker than he did."

"What about our parents? What if they don't allow us to try this?" Lisa asked worriedly. "I don't want to keep this a secret from them."

Alec smirked, "Don't worry about that. Dad talked with both of your parents earlier and they gave their permission. If your parents said no, he would have still taught us but we would have had to wait until we were all 17."

"Oh," came Lisa's simple reply.

"Anymore questions? Or should we finally start that movie?"

"Movie!" Josh and Lisa announced together. They plopped down on the bean bags and grabbed some popcorn before starting to watch it.

"Did you have a pleasant evening?" Severus asked the following day. Binky popped in and took Alec's belongings and placed them in the young boy's room.

"Yup! We had a lot of fun. We even watched a movie last night but fell asleep during it so we had to finish it this morning."

Severus frowned slightly. "What is a movie?"

Alec stared at him confused but then remembered his father knew hardly anything about the muggle world.

"Umm... A movie is...I'm not sure how to explain it," Alec replied, perplexed. "I know! A movie is sort of like a pensieve. It's like watching a story and all movies are different in their own ways. That's the best explanation I can give."

"What is the purpose of watching a movie?" Severus questioned.

"Err... Entertainment? I don't really know. They are just fun to watch and some are funny while others can be adventurous. Like I said, they are all different. We should visit a movie theater some time this summer." Alec suggested.

"Maybe..." Severus replied.

"Sheesh... You should have taken the muggle studies course in your third year." The boy replied with a smirk.

"I was not going to take that class over more important ones such as Ancient Runes," Severus replied. "Now go wash up for dinner brat." He added affectionately. Alec smiled and went off to do as he was told.

After dinner, Alec suddenly remembered that the full moon was yesterday and he forgot to ask how it went.

"How did that new potion work for Remus?"

"It wasn't entirely successful but yet it was not a failure either," Severus replied.

"So what happened?" The Ravenclaw questioned.

"I attempted to add in properties that would eliminate the pain of the transformation while also allowing Lupin to retain his own mind." Severus explained. "Unfortunately the ingredients were not effective enough to reduce the pain but he was able to still retain his human mind."

"Is it hard to find ingredients to work together with the ingredients of the original Wolfsbane potion?" Alec questioned.

"It is exceedingly difficult to combine the wolfsbane potion with additional ingredients to diminish pain. Certain components used in various healing potions are unable to be combined with the wolfsbane potion because together, they could create a poison. It would not be advisable to create a potion for Lupin that does more harm than help."

"However," Severus continued. "I am a potions master and I am always looking for a challenge such as this. Discovering a cure for werewolves is desired by many but very few are up for the task."

"I'm sure Remus really appreciates your attempts," Alec added.

"Did you and your friends decide a date to visit Diagon Alley?" The potions master asked.

"We planned to meet next Friday, if that works for you. Both of their parents already agreed."

"That date will be adequate. It is getting late and you should head up to bed now," Severus suggested.

"Ok. I was getting pretty tired anyways. Night," Alec said as he left the dining room to crawl into his comfy bed.