My assignment had been to look for a rare star, whose name I find I forget right now, but was sure I had found, so I was flipping through my thick 2530 page Astrology book to see its description, and I found a star with my name! Imagine, it took 16 years for me to find out I had the same name as a star. I know it's not like my mother could tell me…
The textbook said:
And then it went on to discuss Orion. But how cool is that, huh? And the irony is amazing too, I mean a dog?
So I swiveled the telescope around a bit to look for the green light. I didn't find it, although I'm sure I looked in the right place. What I did find, however, was a green beam falling through the sky. It seemed to land in the Forbidden Forest, where the rest of the marauders should have been passing through then.
There was a blinding green flash that would have petrified anyone else awake. I only hoped Wormy hadn't seen it. He was the only one of us that didn't say Voldemort. He's also been a bit jumpy lately. He's weird that way, ya know?
So anyway, I didn't hear any screams from Peter or anything, so I forgot all about my assignment and dashed down the astronomy stairs, heading for the forest as a big, black shaggy dog.
Following my dog intuition, I found the landing place of the green beam … and the source of the green flash.
There was a crater, about 10 feet deep, nicely rounded with shallow sides. In the middle lay another dog. It wasn't hug, but it was big, maybe the size of Lily if it stood on its hind legs.
He was a creamy colour all over, except for his ears, which were a rich sort of foxy red. His eyes were closed, but he had a faint green aura around him. It wasn't magic, it suggested and smelled of power. The heavens, the stars, and … SPACE seemed to go with that aura. It was all so mystical, so mythical, so right, and yet … so wrong! As if he didn't belong on earth. More like he belonged up there … in the stars … weird, huh?
Then his eyes opened slowly, and they were that same green as his aura, suggesting all that and more: they were more focused. They flitted around his crater and he got up slowly, shaking himself carefully as he did so.
The strange dog must have smelt me, as his head turned in my direction and what seemed to be confusion streaked across his eyes.
It seemed to call me, and I wasn't given the option of refusing, so I stepped out of the trees and wagged my tail in a worldwide token of friendliness.
He took in my size, and a dog-like fear might have strung itself across his expression, but it was quickly replaced with a graceful kind of power, pride, and … well, something unearthly.
Then he spoke, through a dog link that all kinds of dog minds seem to have. It's sort of what I use to communicate to Prongs and Wormy, except it's for canines only.
**Who are you? Where am I? When am I?** he asked.
**You're in 1978 earth time, you're at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and I am Padfoot. A.K.A. Sirius Black.**
He seemed startled. **Sirius? Is that your name? Sirius?**
I gave a dog's equivalent to a shrug. **Yea, my name's Sirius. What's yours?**
He eyed me with his eerie green eyes, so much more infinite depth lay behind them, more so than my own green eyes.
After deciding that it was ok for me to know, he answered. **My name is Sirius as well. I'm that star up there.** He blinked. **Well, it was more visible before I came down.**
My disbelief didn't seem to register with him. He was staring up at the stars like those centaurs, doing a sort of hop-step-jump with his paws.
It looked like fun, so I started as well. He transferred his attention from the stars to the game immediately, and we were playing a sort of tag game when I hear Prongs swearing softly in his mind, somewhere in the forest to out right.
I giggled mentally. He had gotten his antlers stuck in a tree again. The stupid herbivore, he did that often.
I contacted him telepathically, asking him where Moony was, all the while play fighting with … well, Sirius.
His answer came back quickly enough. ~Padfoot! I thought you were in dete- Ouch! Yea, Moony hasn't given us the slip yet.~
I heard another loud crash, closer by this time, which caused Sirius to stop his attack on my ear and listen.
~It's alright.~ I told him mentally.
~What's alright, Padfoot?~ came Prong's mental voice. We each had a different mental voice, always recognizable from another's.
~Whoops, sorry, wrong channel.~ I giggled back, heaving myself up off the ground and looking around. They would be here shortly.
~Huh?~ came Prongs' voice again, confused, and close by.
Sure enough, an antlered head appeared between two bushes, with a pair of warm, mischievous brown eyes surveying the scene. A rat appeared shortly after, and squeaked distressingly at the sight of a strange and new dog.
Before Prongs could stop him, however, Moony appeared.
Sirius didn't seem scared. Or, at least, the green power didn't. I think the dog nature was just a little scared of the unknown. It took me a few moons to get over that fear myself. And I was Moony's friend. A strange dog and a werewolf, however, could pose a problem.
He wrenched his ear away from Moony, then his ears went up, his hackles rose, and his teeth bared angrily.
Then a stranger thing happened. His eyes sort of lit up, shining green on Moony's coat with an inner fury. They were actually unearthly. Even my dog sense warned me to head for the hills, and I wasn't even in the line of fire, so to speak.
But it didn't seem like Moony was going to back down, so Prongs leapt in and pushed him away with his antlers, and Moony ran off into the forest again, Wormy hanging on desperately to his fur. We couldn't trust Moony on his own anymore. He had given us the slip too often now, and while we always saved his victim-to-be, it was usually too close. Wormy, though small, could distract Moony with his telepathy, and thus enable us some time to get there.
Anyway, so Moony ran off with Wormy. Sirius was just about to follow, when I pounced on him and wagged my tail in an invitation to play.
His fury ebbed away as we played, and after Prongs got the basic gist of the game, he joined in, and we played a sort of three-man something…
Then, we heard Wormy's squeal, and looked up at the sky, where there were pinkish streaks filtering through the mauve.
At the sight, Prongs sprang away in the direction of the squeal, and I was about to follow when a quiet whine reminded me of Sirius.
**It's alright, you can come too.** I sent to him, and bounded off after Prongs, Sirius trailing slightly behind.
When we got to the clearing, where they all were, Remus was being helped onto Prong's back by Peter. I gulped guiltily, and transformed, ignoring Sirius' shocked look, running to a tired Remus and heaving him onto Prongs' back. Remus was often too tired to make it back to the Whomping Willow without help. Being a werewolf took a lot out of him.
I transformed again, and Wormy climbed up onto my back, and we set off for the Willow, a confused Sirius following us.
We went through the usual routine. Wormy froze the Willow, and we crept along the tunnel as humans into the bare room at the end, dropping Remus onto the beat-up bed, where he curled up immediately, exhausted. Then we shot down the stairs and into Hogsmeade, where we turned into our respective animals and raced towards Hogwarts. Sirius was still following us.
Creeping along tricky corridors under an invisibility cloak with one confused dog, and three semi tired teenage boys is no easy work, but we managed to make our way into the Gryffindor common room without being caught.
Peter yawned and trundled up the boys staircase, muttering something as he disappeared around the turn. James, however, sat down in an armchair near the simmering embers of the fireplace and gestured towards the dog.
"Well, Sirius?"
Both me and the dog looked up at the sound of our name, to see a startled James.
"If you're talking to me, Prongs, call me Padfoot. His name is Sirius as well." I told James, making myself comfortable in an armchair opposite his. Sirius promptly leaned against my legs, and I hesitantly rubbed his ears.
"Fine Padfoot. Explain."
I told him all that had happened before his head poked through the bushes, and he nodded.
"He said he was a star?"
"Yea…"
James grinned. "Well, Padfoot, I think you have a new pet."
Sirius blinked and licked his lips. I looked at him. "Do they allow dogs as pets though?"
James shrugged. "Dunno. We could always hide him."
I nodded and yawned. "I'm tired. Weird."
"You? Tired? Sirius, what's wrong?" came a new voice. The dog looked up, and bounded over to where Lily was standing and stretching at the bottom of the girl's staircase.
"Why, hello there. Alright Sirius, where'd you pick up the dog?"
I grinned. "How do you know it wasn't James?"
She grinned back. "Because he can't pick up anything or anyone."
James smirked. "You're just jealous that I can pick up girls and you can't Lil."
Lily snorted, and sat down on the arm of his armchair. "Me? Pick up girls? Sorry, I don't swing that way, Potter."
I yawned again, and patted my leg, ignoring their bickering. They were a peculiar couple.
Sirius responded to my leg pat, and came to sit by my leg again, where I scratched his ears and dozed off slowly.
What seemed like seconds, and probably were passed, until James shook me awake again.
"Come on, Padfoot, upstairs." He hissed at me.
I groaned in reply and stumbled up the stairs behind him, Sirius following me.
"Come on Padfoot, sleep, we're skipping first period."
I gave a sleepy grin and flopped onto the bed. "Great. What is it?"
"Divination. You know, Padfoot, I think you're sick."
"Wouldn't surprise me …" The next thing I knew, I was asleep.
AN: At last. One of my other series has hit FFNet! Anyway, I think this should be quite interesting. I'll post the second chapter if I get 5 reviews. Does that sound fair? O.o;
Well, anyway, please review, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Cheers and white ferrets!! ^^