GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Nineteen: Abience)

Abience: The strong urge to avoid someone or something.

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Alex Fawley did not trust Sirius Black. 

This in itself was not unusual- 'trust' and 'Sirius Black' were not conventionally words that fitted together. But now, it was less, 'I solemnly swear to never drink tea prepared by you', and more 'you are definitely giving off some serious Scar-from-Lion-King levels of treachery right now'. Her trust for him was about equal with her belief that the flask that Professor Slughorn stored under his desk and sipped in lessons contained only pumpkin juice. 

"Snuffles." Sirius spat out eventually, after far too long shooting shifty-eyed glances towards every available exit.

At first, Alex thought he had sneezed, "What?"

"Snuffles is my dog." Sirius admitted, avoiding her eyes, "I mean, he's not actually called Snuffles, but I know... I mean, Moony told me you call him Snuffles so-"

"Your dog?" Alex repeated slowly. She was sure she would feel something about that later. It was one of the top three things that she was certain about, right after her own inadequacy and the orchestrated difficulty of wizarding currency.

Sirius swallowed, and nodded, as if to confirm what he was going to say to himself, "Yes. My dog."

"That's your big revelation?" Alex asked incredulously, raising her eyebrows, "You have an illegal dog at school?"

"Well," Sirius corrected, "That and my frankly astounding ability as a beater, which of course has the proportional effect on the muscles, but that's hardly a secret."

Alex narrowed her eyes at him, "I'm not sure whether to punch you in the throat or throw up. Probably both. And then line your mattress with bees for good measure. Also probably a cactus."

Sirius looked startled, "Why?"

"Are you flirting with me?" Alex demanded, in a professor-ish tone.

Sirius sighed, "Well, I'm trying to. It's not a big deal."

"Yeah, well, this," Alex indicated her face, metaphorically gesturing to the threats that had just emerged from it, "Is all the stuff that girls normally think when you flirt with them. I just have the good grace to say it out loud."

"And I guess the boys are just fine with it?" Sirius challenged.

"No idea. Never been one of them." Alex slouched, leaning back against the statue of Helga Hufflepuff, "What's the dog called then?"

This seemed to shock Sirius more than any of her threats, "What?"

"The dog? Snuffles?" Alex reminded him patronisingly, "The one that you were so terrified of telling me about before?"

"Oh. Right." Sirius mirrored the girl's movements.

Alex watched him for a few moments before speaking, "Do you not remember, or..?"

"Hercules. He's called Hercules." Sirius declared, frustrated.

Alex scoffed, "Hercules? As in big muscly Greek hero?"

"What's wrong with that?" Sirius demanded, adding as an afterthought, "And also Hercules was Roman."

"It doesn't suit him." Alex grinned lazily, "He's more of a... Jack from Jack and the Bean Stalk."

"You're kidding, right?" Sirius stared at her, hard. Alex had the feeling she had committed some kind of mortal offense.

"No." Alex laughed, "Less swords-up-and-fight, more sneak-about-and-run."