GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Eight: You Will Be Found)

This was bad.

He had just wanted a few moments, just to go the alcove in the bottom of Gryffindor Tower and check that Alex wasn't there, even though Remus had assured him that the girl was not going out. There was this itch at the back of his mind that told him the only thing in the world Alex would break rules for was a photograph.

So, in dog form, once Remus had turned, Sirius quietly slipped away from the Shrieking Shack. Werewolf Remus (Or Wemus) had reached the point where he was comfortable enough with his animagus sidekicks to wander around the school grounds without going crazy trying to catch pixies or turning his attention to the school. Sirius trusted James and Peter to keep the Wemus happy hunting gnomes in the Forbidden Forest until he had checked the alcove.

It was empty. Thank Merlin, it was empty. Sirius stuck his nose to the grass, inhaling deeply. The scent was stale, it had been at least a day since anyone had been there. Relief flooded through the dog, followed immediately by a flush of heat. It was one of those surprisingly warm Octobers that stifled the air with a stickiness that stained his nose just as the innards of a pumpkin did while still managing a chill wind.

Sirius let his tongue loll out of his mouth contentedly as he trotted around the castle walls, resolving to return to the Forbidden Forest. He was just passing a side exit to the castle when he smelt it: An almost orange fog, with a distinct odour of nutmeg.

Alex.

Sirius felt his shackles raise, a growl building in his throat. He felt his anger irrationally direct itself towards the Gryffindor girl- Why couldn't she have just listened? She had no trouble being afraid of almost everything else, why the one thing, the one night, that could actually kill her?

Of course, Sirius knew the answer: Alex disliked the presence of people, to the point of resentment. There was no way she would listen to someone she didn't even know tell her that there was any picture she couldn't take, especially after all the hell she'd been getting from teachers about putting photography before schoolwork.

It was about then that he heard it:

"AWOOOOOOOO!"

It took Sirius less than a minute to chase down the source of the noise, but it was enough to send his mind reeling through all the possibilities. He cursed himself over and over again- of course Alex wouldn't have come to the alcove, you couldn't see the moon from here, and she had more than enough pictures of the Forbidden Forest from this angle. She would want somewhere more visually pleasing, where you could get a clear shot of the night sky away from all the pollution of the school, somewhere like...

The Black Lake.

Such an idiot not to think that the place the Marauders had deemed safe for the Wemus to roam freely was also extremely photogenic. The perfect place to catch a reflection shot of the moon, now Sirius thought about it.

His paws pounded the earth beneath him as he galloped round the corner. Three shapes loomed out of the darkness, silhouetted against the light of the moon in a way that Sirius had to admit was very dramatic. He almost wished he had a camera to capture it himself.

He had paused for a second, assessing the situation, as Remus would have said. But his time for quiet contemplation was soon over when the wolf-shaped dot leapt over the deer-shaped dot and mowed straight into the human-ish splodge.

Sirius felt the breath knocked out of him as the human figure fell to the ground. A howl died in his throat. He was too far away, he knew even as his paws hit the earth once more. He could only watch as the stag galloped to the human's side, spearing the Wemus in an attempt to push it off the girl.