Dream away (Remus/Sirius; Rated T; 17,5k words)

Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Thank yous for NachoDiablo and Wereflamingo for betaing and cheerleading me through this chapter! They are both also amazing Wolfstar authors with great fics, so be sure to check their works in AO3!

Remus had always been proud about how good he was with handling dogs, but he was becoming ready to admit that perhaps he wasn't up to this particular case.

He was sitting on the floor, elbows on his knees and leaning against the wall opposite a row of kennels. Inside the kennel in front of him, a big, black dog was looking at him warily from behind the bars. The food bowl in front of it remained untouched, despite the drool that kept slowly dripping from its jaws.

Remus sighed and rubbed his temples.

The police had dropped the dog at the shelter a few months ago, after they had found him living with an escaped convict. Everyone had pets, even criminals, and this hadn't been the first time that an animal had been brought to the Gryffindor Rescue Center under such circumstances.

The police had been able to give Remus vague information surrounding the dog's past. The poor beast had certainly faced its share of neglect and abuse, and it showed in its reluctance to trust anyone . Police Officer Potter had finally been able to goad it out from under the convict's house, but Remus didn't want to think what could have happened if someone less patient or kind hearted had been in the charge of the operation.

If Potter hadn't paid mind to the beast, it would probably have starved down there.

After long weeks at the shelter, and gently yet persistently pushing at the dog's comfort zone, Remus had thought that he and Padfoot had been off to a good start, but last week they were suddenly back at where they had started, Padfoot watching his every move with those suspicious, wary eyes.

He wished that he could just ask the dog what had happened between them to cause this sudden rift. The look of hurt and lack of trust in those intelligent eyes haunted Remus at night, when he was trying to sleep. During the day, he felt those eyes on his back, watching him intently whenever he was working inside the kennel section of the building.

On particularly bad nights, he thought in frustration that perhaps there wasn't even a reason for this sudden change — perhaps the dog was just utterly mad, finally showing its deep scars from its difficult earlier life.

"You need to eat," he said gently, and Padfoot let out a low, deep growl. "And you need to learn to trust me again." Or you'll never get out of here alive, thought Remus, but didn't want to say it aloud. It had been a long while since they had had to give up on a dog's rehabilitation.

"Remus?"

Remus looked at the doorway. "Oh, hi Peter," he said with a smile. "Come in."

His friend stepped inside the room, eyes jumping skittishly around. A couple of the other dogs roused inside their kennels and gave a few rough barks at him, which made him flinch visibly.

Peter had never been a fan of big, loud canines. Which made it even more surprising to find him here in the evening, of his own free will. "What are you doing here?" Remus asked him.

"I came to check up on you, because, um" said Peter, and looked around the room, like he was searching for the correct words before continuing. He took few, hesitant steps forward, coming to stand next to Remus. "I... it's already evening, and you didn't show up at the pub at the time we agreed to meet up."

"Oh. I forgot that we planned to meet up. There's so much to do here that it's easy to lose track of time. I'm sorry."

"I understand," said Peter. "I just got worried, so I decided to come by. Don't worry about it. What's that one's story?" He nodded towards Padfoot, who regarded him with cold eyes.