Venus

13- Big Black Dog Again

"What did Dumbledore want?" Ginny asked when Venus hurried into the dorms after the feast.

"He was just checking I was okay after the dementors." Venus began searching her trunk for some pajamas.

"Didn't Madam Pomfry do that?" Mali was already pinning up some band posters next to her bed.

Venus shot Ginny a look, begging her to change the subject and Ginny did so wonderfully.

"So Annabel, how was your summer." Ginny asked one of their dormmates.

"Oh brilliant." Annabel shot into a story of how her and her parents had taken a trip around North America.

Mali however kept her eyes focused on Venus. The girl didn't seem to trust what her friend told her. So much so that she abandoned her 'Take That' poster on her bed and grabbed Venus's arm, pulling her out of the dorm and down the stairs, into the now empty common room.

"Why are you pulling me?" Venus demanded, shaking Mali's hand off of her.

"Because you're lying to me."

"No I'm not."

"There you go again!" Mali clenched her fists, "Lying!"

"Mali can we please not talk about this?"

"No because we're friends, and friends talk about this stuff."

"But I don't want to talk about it." Venus snapped, "I like to avoid my problems until they bite me in the arse, that's how I handle homework and that's how I'll handle this."

Mali stared at her friend, "so you are hiding something then."

"No I never-"

"You basically just admitted it Ve," said Mali, "you can talk to me. What's wrong."

Venus threw herself on to an armchair and stared angrily at the fire.

"Ve please," Mali sat down beside her.

"Okay, okay!" Venus threw her hands up in defeat, "my dad is Sirius Black."

Mali blinked at her, "what?"

"You heard me!" Replied Venus, "the rumours are true, I'm Sirius Black's long lost daughter or whatever."

"But you're a Weasley," Mali said.

"Think about it M, do I look remotely like any one of my siblings?"

"I guess not, but-"

"That's why the dementors were so focused on me earlier, I smell like him or whatever." Venus shrugged.

"Ve you could have said something!" Mali put her hand around Venus's shoulder. "All of last year you never mentioned-"

"I only found out in the summer," Venus assured her friend, "Dumbledore came to the house and told mum and dad that since Sirius had escaped that they had to tell me."

"So they did?" Mali asked. "Just like that?"

"Well not exactly, I overheard them talking with Dumbledore, but yeah, they just told me."

"And are you okay about it?" Mali pressed her friend, anxious to know the girl's feelings on the matter.

"I guess so," Venus shrugged again, "I mean one day I have two perfectly normal wizarding parents and seven siblings and the next day I'm the daughter of a mass murderer and a dead woman."

"So your mother is dead?" Mali squeezed her friend's shoulder

"Yeah, Marlene her name was," Venus recalled what Dumbledore had told her, "Marlene McKinnon."

"God it's got late!" Mali had glanced down at her watch, "we really should go to sleep, we can talk about this more in the morning Ve."

The two girls headed up to their dorm and climbed into bed, but no matter how hard she tried, Venus just couldn't go to sleep. She tossed and turned for hours before she eventually gave up.

She slid her feel into her boots and pulled on a jacket before heading out of the dorm.

During her first year Venus had began taking walks around the castle at night when she couldn't sleep. She had always done this at home, and she was quick enough on her feet that she easily avoided Filtch and Mrs Norris.

Venus climbed out of the portrait hole, letting it close behind her and she headed down the many stairs towards the entrance hall.

She hid behind a tapistry from Peeves as he zoomed past and narrowly avoided Mrs Norris's watchful gaze, but eventually she made it outside.

The night air was cool on her face and relaxed her somewhat, but she continued to walk, heading down towards the lake.

The cresent moon reflected on on the water and Venus couldn't help but compare it to a toe nail.

She sat down underneath a large tree beside the lake and stared off at the horizon.

She stayed there for sometime before something nudged her arm, making her jump out of her skin.

It was a large black dog, much like the one that had sat with her at the Burrow the last day she had been there.

"Are you following me?" Venus laughed.

The dog settled itself beside her and wrested it's head in her lap, Venus began to stroke it's head absentmindedly.

"It must be so much easier to be a dog," Venus mused, "you eat, you run and you sleep. I think I would quite like to be a dog."

The dog cocked it's head at her.

"You're quite a clever dog though aren't you," Venus patted it's head, " I'm sure you could win one of those muggle dog shows no problem!"

The dog barked quietly causing Venus to laugh again, "I would really like to be a dog, maybe when I'm older I'll become an animagus and I can run off and live in the woods away from all of my problems."

The dog cocked it's head again, seeming to ask, what problems?

"You see I just found out over the summer that I am adopted," Venus told the dog, "I was put into my parents care after my mother died and my father went to prison. But you see my father has just escaped from prison and everyone is looking for his daughter and there's this rumor going around school that it's me, and yes it is me, but I don't want everyone to find out and-" Venus stopped herself, "Merlin now I'm talking to a dog, I'm going insane."

The dog barked again, making Venus laugh again, "a very clever dog at that!"

She scrambled to her feet and dusted herself off.

"I enjoy our talks very much," she told the dog as she patted it's head, "I hope that you'll be here next time I come out."

The dog barked and nudged her legs with it's head.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Venus turned around and hurried back up to the castle, not looking back once. If she had looked back she might have seen the dog transforming into a human for a moment and watching her until she was safely inside, before changing back into a dog and bounding off towards the Forbidden Forest.

And we're back at Hogwarts!
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~Em xx