"Please, Severus, I'm just asking a small favor. I need your help," Albus Dumbledore begged. He tried a winning smile on the scowling man in front of him.
"Absolutely not, I will not do it," Severus Snape insisted. "Surely there is someone more suitable you can con into watching the beast."
"There is a possibility that the dog has been inadvertently exposed to several potions. It will require your particular expertise to monitor her for ill effects."
"Why is this one mangy cur so important? Is it some sort of magical beast?" Severus found the Headmaster's story suspicious, but he knew he would not get any more information out of the man than he had already decided to provide.
"No, no, it is a completely ordinary dog. But an important one none the less. Please, Severus. I just need you to look after her for a little while. I want her to be a gift to someone very important to me once I am sure she is well."
"I don't even like dogs – they are in general loud, destructive, and filthy with no obvious redeeming qualities. I cannot begin to comprehend why anyone would keep one as a pet."
"I'm not asking you to keep her as a pet, just feed her and walk her for a couple weeks. You will hardly even notice she's there. She's very quiet."
Severus sighed. He had known from the beginning he would end up taking the dog. There was no way he could refuse Albus anything, no matter how miserable it made him. His pride had not allowed him to give in without a fight, but it was time to accept the inevitable. "All right, I will watch the creature, but not for long. This is a strictly temporary arrangement." He did not hesitate to use his sternest glare on the Headmaster.
"Of course, Severus, just a couple weeks, I promise," Albus answered. "Her name is Yoti, like a coyote; I think the two of you will get on splendidly."
Severus did not trust the Headmaster's twinkling smile for a moment.
xxxXXXxxx
Severus' quiet evening was interrupted by the arrival of the dog in his quarters. Dumbledore brought the dog through the Floo along with a large plastic tub. "Here she is, Severus, sorry I can't stay. Her things are in the tub," Dumbledore said, and disappeared back through the Floo before Severus could speak a word.
Severus simply stared at the dog, not yet quite resigned to taking responsibility for its welfare, and the creature stared back. He thought for a moment that he would never have turned his loyalty from the Dark Lord, had he known it would lead to this.
Severus took out his wand and performed a thorough scan of the animal. It seemed to be a perfectly ordinary dog with no magical properties. "Dumbledore truly has gone mad at last," he said to the dog. "He could not have found anyone less amenable to looking after his dog if he tried."
The dog wagged its tail and offered him a doggy grin. Severus took a moment to study the animal in front of him. Admittedly, he didn't know much about dogs, but this creature didn't appear to be any sort of purebred. It was of a medium size, tan with a darker black patch covering its back. It's most striking feature was its massive ears sticking up from the top of its head like antennae, the left one with a slight kink in the tip. Its golden eyes were bright, its snout long and pointed. Severus had visited the library that afternoon to look up what a coyote was, and he could certainly see a resemblance. The creature was lean and athletic looking. Undoubtedly, it would require a good deal of exercise.
"What am I supposed to do with you?" Severus asked the animal. The dog continued to grin at him. Severus examine the tub that had arrived with the dog. It contained a bag of dog food, several dishes, and a couple of plastic and rawhide bones. "I suppose I should provide you with some supper, shouldn't I?" He read the instructions on the side of the dog food package, estimated the dog's weight, and scooped out the recommended amount of food into one of the dishes. He used a simple Aguamenti charm to fill the second dish with water.
The dog watched his actions alertly but made no move to approach the dishes. "Go on, eat, you foolish creature," Severus snapped, making the dog flinch away from him. He sighed and stepped back from the dishes. "Eat your supper, dog," he said more softly, trying not to scare the animal.
Once Severus had moved away from the food, the dog cautiously approached, keeping one eye on Severus as it sniffed suspiciously at the food bowl. The creature apparently decided the food was acceptable, and wolfed it down in a matter of minutes. The animal then lapped noisily at the bowl of water, splashing more and more water on the surrounding floor with every flick of its pink tongue.
"Your table manners are atrocious," he told the dog with a frown. "I suppose I will have to take you outside now." The dog just smiled, dripping more water from its muzzle as it moved away from the bowl back towards the fireplace.
The animal was wearing a dark leather collar with the word 'Yoti' on it in silver, but there was no leash provided in the supply tub. Severus pointed an admonishing finger at the dog and said, "I am going to take you outside now. I swear I will hex you into next week if you attempt to run off." The dog just grinned and wagged its tail again, giving no sign that it understood his words.
"Now I'm the one losing my mind, talking to this filthy mutt as if it could understand me," Severus said, silently cursing Albus Dumbledore for doing this to him. He walked to the door and turned to see the dog still watching him from its spot beside the fireplace. "Yoti." It was almost painful to acknowledge the creature by its name. "Come on, let's go." The dog seemed to understand this and trotted over to the door, then followed at his heel as he led it up from the dungeons and out onto the grounds. Thankfully, it was late enough in the evening that they did not encounter any students in the halls.
The dog did its business – Severus vanished the mess with a flick of his wand – but it was not inclined to head back into the castle immediately. Instead, the animal seemed to be enjoying the outdoors and pranced about with its head high and its tail raised like a flag. It – she, the dog was female and he would have to stop thinking of her as an it – picked up a stick from the ground and carried it over to him. Severus just looked at her, eyebrows raised. "I agreed to feed you and walk you, but I will not stoop to playing fetch with you," he told the animal.
The dog accepted this statement and didn't seem to require his participation. She tossed her head, shaking the stick in her mouth violently, and growled playfully. Then she began to run and leap in circles around him, tossing the stick in the air and then pouncing on it when it landed. Severus watched stone-faced, refusing to acknowledge the dog's antics.
Eventually, she tired of the game and followed him meekly back to his rooms in the dungeons. "I have papers to grade," Severus told her, "and I will not tolerate you disturbing me, do you understand?" It was disconcerting to him that he was so quickly falling into the habit of speaking to the dog. He found a hard plastic bone covered in tooth gouges in the tub of supplies and handed it to the dog. Although it looked completely unappealing to him, she seemed pleased with it and carried it off to the rug in front of the fire, where she laid down and began chewing contentedly on the bone.
An hour later, Severus was ready to go to bed, and he again found himself addressing the dog. "I suppose you will have to sleep in my bedroom. I cannot leave you out here unsupervised with my books and papers. But do not think for a moment you are going to be sleeping on the bed." His glare seemed to have no effect on the dog. He conjured a soft fluffy dog bed on the floor beside his own bed and watched in satisfaction as the dog climbed into it, spun three circles, and plopped herself down with a grunt. "I see we understand each other," Severus said, and shut off the lights.
xxxXXXxxx
When Severus awoke the next morning he found the dog curled in a tight ball on the foot of his bed. He glared fiercely at her. "You have your own bed, dog, and I can Stick you to it next time if you need help staying in it," Severus growled. The dog's calm eyes met his and her tail thumped softly against his leg.
They were up early enough to avoid running into any students on their way outside, but the dog again wanted to frolic and play in the fresh air. She sprinted circles around him, dropping periodically into a play bow before yipping at him and taking off in the opposite direction. By the time the dog was panting and willing to follow him inside, the students were drifting into the Great Hall for breakfast. They stared in fascinated disbelief at the cheerful mutt trotting beside their fearsome Potions Master, but of course it was only Potter who couldn't keep his fool mouth shut. "Is that your dog, Professor?" the boy asked.
Severus almost snapped at the boy that of course it was his dog, who else's dog would he be walking at the crack of dawn, but instead he said, "The creature is a temporary inconvenience. Kindly mind your own business, Mr. Potter, before I am forced to take points for nosiness." To his disgust, the dog responded to Potter's interest by leaping on the boy, slamming her paws into his chest and swiping her tongue across his face. Severus was even more incensed when the boy just laughed and scratched the dog behind her ears.
"Aren't you a nice dog, such a pretty thing," Potter crooned to the animal.
"Potter! Get your filthy hands off my dog this instant!"
The boy jumped back as if the dog had suddenly caught fire. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," Potter mumbled and then nearly ran away towards the Great Hall.
Severus called the dog away and stormed off to his rooms, where he addressed the dog sternly. "You displayed appallingly disgraceful behavior this morning," he said. Rather than its usual grin, the dog looked almost guilty. Was it even possible for a dog to feel guilt? "I expect a bit more appreciation from you while I am allowing you to live in my home, and that means no cozying up to Potter of all people." The dog looked suitably chastened, so Severus gave her some food and then left her in his sitting room with strict instructions not to touch anything but her own things while he was at breakfast.
In the Great Hall, Albus gave him an annoyingly cheerful smile, his eyes twinkling more than ever. "Where is your new friend this morning, Severus? I thought she would want to accompany you to breakfast."
"What the animal wants is not my concern, Albus. It would be unsanitary to bring her to meals," Severus replied shortly. "She is waiting in my quarters and hopefully not doing irreparable damage to my possessions while unsupervised. If you have so much time to worry about her whereabouts surely you have time to take over her care yourself. I have not noticed any signs of poisoning so far."
"Oh no, my boy, I am far too busy. I am, er, going away for a few days, er, right after breakfast."
When Severus returned to his rooms following breakfast, he found Yoti stretched out on the floor beside his desk surrounded by piles of shredded paper. The dog looked up, startled, when Severus came into the room. When she offered him her trademark grin, a bit of paper fell from her mouth. Her wagging tail sent a cloud of paper scraps scattering through the air.
Severus stood a moment in stunned disbelief, and then he exploded in fury. "What the hell have you done you obnoxious beast?" he yelled. "How dare you touch my papers?" He stormed forward to snatch up some of the scraps of paper. He recognized bits of the essay he had been planning to hand back to his third year students that day. Now it seemed the entire stack had been destroyed. "You are the worst dog in the world! What am I supposed to tell the students when I don't have any essays to hand back?"
He was still screaming and he realized that the dog had retreated to cower under his desk. She let out a whimper and Severus suddenly felt like the world's biggest jerk. What kind of monster lost his temper with a dog? She clearly didn't have a clue what she had done wrong, and yet here he was screaming at her while she recoiled in terror. He took a certain pleasure in terrifying his students, but a dog was a different matter entirely. Severus finally remembered that he was a wizard and used a Reparo on the shredded papers, but most of reassembled essays had chunks missing, likely where the creature had ingested bits of the paper.
Severus collapsed on the couch. He spoke softly, not looking at the dog. "I did not really mean that," he said. "I know you didn't mean to do anything wrong. You probably are not truly the worst dog in the world."
Severus sat staring into the distance with unfocused eyes. He was clearly not capable of taking care of a dog and he cursed Albus again for forcing him into this situation. Without warning, a soft nose bumped against his knee, and then a pointed snout wormed its way under his hands on his lap until he was forced to stroke the top of her soft head. His long fingers gently rubbed the dog's soft ears, and there was a lump in his throat as he contemplated the forgiving nature of dogs.
"I suppose I can simply inform the students that their work was so atrocious I was forced to incinerate it. I can make them do the assignment over again, with an extra foot on how putting in such an abysmal effort shows their disrespect for those of us wasting our time trying to educate the brats." Severus was almost smiling now, warming to the idea. Those essays had come from Potter's class, and he was almost grateful to the dog for providing the opportunity to ridicule Potter. And imagine how upset the Granger girl would be to have her work condemned with the rest of them. It would be a joy to behold. Of course, his Slytherins would have to be included too – their essays were just as hopelessly damaged as the rest – but even they could stand to be put in their place from time to time.
