Finally! I was finally able to get away from those two oafs, Crabbe and Goyle, and that stupid pug, Parkinson. I don't even know how they got into Hogwarts. I mean, aren't you at least suppose to have a brains to be allowed into a top-of-the-list school like Hogwarts? Now I'm late for my meeting with Hermione, who I haven't seen since the end of last year, when she got unpetrified, because I had to detach Pansy from me when she tried to kiss me. Disgusting!
As I walked through the woods to get to the garden I started to get excited with each step. I missed Neenie, my nickname for her, so much, along with Alphy. Talking over summer was nothing compared to actually seeing her, my one and only true friend. Before we left to go home last year she gave me a muggle device. She called it a cell phone. She told me it was a way to communicate with each other by talking instead of writing. This way my father wouldn't be suspicious if an unfamiliar owl came through with letters for me. And he wouldn't start asking me questions on who they were from.
As I entered the garden I was engulfed by the smell of all the flowers. As I looked around, all the good memories from last year came flooding back to me. The fountain where Neenie and I had many water fights. The apples from the apple trees we would pick to bring to Hagrid, the only person who knew of our friendship, and accepted it. The tulip bush that was flatter than the others from when I fell on it because Alphy jumped on me from behind. The roses I plucked to leave on the side of Neenie's hospital bed when she was petrified.
Oh Merlin I remember the day Hagrid told me she was petrified. I didn't give a Merlin's beard what people were thinking when they saw me run past them on my way to the hospital wing. Luckily it was during lunch, so no one was there. I remember how I couldn't stop crying, how weak I felt because of it. For the next few weeks after that I felt so lonely without her in our garden. I think Alphy was too because he wasn't the same energetic dog, and he would try to cheer me up by playing catch.
Suddenly I was taken from my thoughts when I was knocked to the ground by a huge ball of fur. A huge familiar ball of yellow fur.
"Alphy!" I practically yelled, excited to see my favorite dog again. "How you doing boy?" he barked in response and started to lick my face. "Ugh. Get off me you fur ball." I said while laughing, getting up from under him.
After I dusted myself off I turned to get a good look at Alphy. He went from being a small puppy to a huge dog. He now looked three feet long and two feet high. His yellow fur grew longer and seemed to have multiplied. The tip of his ear grew back but he still didn't have a tail.
"Well, look who grew up on me, eh?" I said and bent down to pet his head. He barked in response and wagged it butt seeing as he didn't have a tail to wag. Wait a second. If Alphy was here than that can only mean one thing.
"Neenie?" I called, standing up and turning around. There was no answer. "Neenie?" I called again still no answer. "I know you're here!"
"Ooooooo" her voice rang out, trying to sound ghostly. I looked around the garden but didn't spot her anywhere.
"Neenie this isn't funny. Get your bookworm arse out here." This earned me a giggle and I whipped my head to the left. No sign of her.
"Wrong way blondie." She said in a sing-song voice. I whipped my head to my right, where I heard her voice. Still no sign.
"Where the bloody hell are you?" I asked. How the hell was this girl hiding from me?
"I'll give you a hint." She whispered.
Suddenly I was hit in the head with something small and soft, and it smashed when it came in contact with my head. "Ow. What the hell?" I put my hand to my forehead to see what I got hit with, and wiped the substance off my forehead. When I pulled my hand down to eye level to see what she threw at me, my hand was stained with blue and purple juice. A blueberry. I looked up at the blueberry tree and there, standing on one of the thick branches, leaning against the tree trunk, with a basket full of blueberries in her hand, was none other than Hermione granger. "Were the berries necessary?" I asked holding up my stained hand.
"You found me didn't you?" she asked smugly, one eyebrow rising.
"You have got to stop hanging around me. You're turning too cocky for your own good." I said with my signature smirk.
"I learn from the best." She replied while also smirking.
"Hey, watch it! That's my smirk, missy. You're not allowed to use it."
"I didn't see a name on it."
"Well it doesn't need a name on it to know its mine. Now get your arse down here so I can hug the living daylights out of you." I demanded, pointing my finger towards the ground to show my point.
"You want me…" she went to her knees on the branch and leaned forward, while holding onto the branch to keep from falling, so that her face was one or two feet away from mine. "come get me." She said in a challenging voice.
"Oh, it's on." As soon as these words left my mouth she went into squirrel monkey mode and started climbing the trees with cheetah speed, and me right on her tail.
This is one of the many games we play. We jump from tree to tree, chasing each other, climbing up to the very top and down to the bottom of the trunk. We don't stop until we catch who we're chasing and that's what makes it so fun.
When I had finally caught her she was just about to jump into the next tree, but I had caught her around the waist. This seemed to be a bad idea, seeing as when I went to reach for her I lost my footing, and fell out of the tree, dragging her down with me. Luckily, there was a bush right below us and we landed in it with an 'oomph'.
We climbed out of the bush and dusted ourselves off. When we looked up, we met each other's eyes, and burst out laughing. It took us five minutes to get ourselves together, and when we had calmed down I grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug that could give Hagrid a run for his money. I heard and felt her laugh back, and return the hug. When I finally let her go, we walked to the fountain and sat down on the ledge, and immediately Alphy came over and sat at our feet.
"It's been too long." She said.
"I know. I'm so happy to be back. Sorry I'm late, though. Pug-faced Parkinson was clinging to me like a leach. Good thing Blaise was there. He told her that Millicent was upstairs trying to try on her clothes, and she jetted up there like a bat out of hell. You can always count on good old Blaise." He said, and they both laughed.
"Well it doesn't matter. You got away, and you're here now. And…" she trailed off, nervously fidgeting with her hands, looking down except of at me.
"And…what?" I didn't like the way she was getting nervous. It made me uneasy. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing it's just…I have this surprise but I don't know how you'll like it." She said looking behind her where the dog house was.
"Well I'm sure whatever it is I'll love it. Come on, what is it?" I said in a reassuring voice.
"Well, you see, when we got to school I came straight here so I could drop off Alphy and his toys. When I entered the garden, I went to his dog house to put his covers in it, but his dog house was, well, preoccupied." She finished, finally looking up at me.
"Well…what was 'preoccupying' it?" I asked, really confused on what could possibly be here, in our garden, in Alphy's dog house.
"Well…um…" she took two of her fingers and put them in her mouth. She then took a deep breath and blew, making a whistling noise. From behind me I heard a shuffling noise coming from the bushes. I slowly turned around to see what was making that noise. Slowly approaching from the bushes was a big, dark dog. As it fully showed itself from the bushes I got a good look at it. It was about an inch bigger in height and length than Alphy, with black, shaggy fur and black eyes. The dog walked over until it was two feet in front of me and sat down, looking up at me.
"A…dog."
"Yes. He was all skin and bones when I found him. And he was really dirty too. So I fed and washed him and he's all better now. But I don't know what to do with him. So…um…" she trailed off, coming to stand next to me. I kneeled down on one knee and started to pet the dogs head.
"This is why you were so nervous? Because you thought I wouldn't want to keep him?" I asked looking up at her.
"Well I didn't think you would want the responsibility of another dog."
"Like I care about the responsibility! I'll take in any animal that comes through these gardens. For all I care we could open a hotel, like that movie you told me about, Hotel for Dogs. Yeah I like the sound of that. Any dog in need is welcome in these gardens. We really should open up that hotel thing. Rescue stray—"I was cut off by Neenie
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm yourself Drake. Getting a little ahead of yourself, eh?" she said laughing, all nervousness gone. I beamed up at her as I continued to stroke the new dog. She came and sat next to me and Alphy instantly came next to her, putting his head on her thigh.
"Well, you don't have anything to worry about. This surprise is amazing. So this mans we have to build him a dog house."
"Yup. I got that under control." She got up and walked over to Alphy's house. From where I was I couldn't hear her. All I could see was her doing some wand movements, and then the rock on the ground, next to Alphy's house, slowly turned into a wooden house like Alphy's, only this one had a red roof instead of green. She turned to me with a smug smile and her arms crossed over her chest.
"Show-off" I said jokingly.
"You know it." She said, laughing with me.
"So now that he has a house, what do we name him?"
"He has a tag around his neck. It looks really old and beaten up, so it was hard to read. But I could make out the words Padfoot." I looked around his neck and found the tag. It was circular and a maroon color, and was rusted with scratches all over. If you looked really closely you could make out the name. Padfoot.
"Well, Padfoot it is then." I said while looking at Neenie, who smiled while the dogs both barked.
"Padfoot. Has a nice ring to it." I smiled.
"Well we should probably get back before people miss us." I said, sad that I had to leave already.
"Oh I forgot to tell you! Remember how I showed you to text on the cell phone?" she asked excitedly. I nodded. "Well Hagrid put a spell on my phone that Dumbledore taught all the teachers, which will allow it to work in Hogwarts. He taught me the spell so I could show you so that we can communicate using the phone."
"Excellent! Show me." I demanded, excited that I could talk to her even when I'm not with her.
"Okay. All you have to do is point your wand at your phone and say en teléfonocellular"
"Okay, en teléfonocellular, got it," I said smiling at her. She smiled back.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then. Goodbye Alphy," she kissed him on the head, "Goodbye Padfoot," she repeated the process with him, "And Goodbye Drake" She came and kissed me on the cheek as usual.
"Goodbye Neenie." I said, returning the gesture. "Stay witty." I added, smirking at her.
"Stay cocky."
"Will do, will do."
The end of the year
"So let me get this right. The dog that we have fed, bathed, and grown to love was really Sirius Black, a framed murderer, in animagus form?" I asked, dumbfounded about what Neenie just told me.
"Yup." She said casually.
"And you found this out when Weasley almost got his leg torn off by him?"
"Correct.
"And you went back in time, repeated the whole afternoon, saved Buckbeak, almost got torn to pieces by a wear wolf, not any wear wolf but Professor Lupin, saved Sirius from dementors, and helped him and Buckbeak escape?" I said, trying to grasp everything she just told me.
"Yes sir-y" she said casually.
"Wait so this whole year I've bathed a man! That's disgusting! And not any man but Sirius Black! Oh my Merlin." I exploded. I had washed a man! How disgusting! I'm taking a good shower when I get back to the castle.
"Drake, calm down. He didn't feel so right about it either, but he had to get cleaned somehow right?" she asked all too innocently.
"Oh your enjoying this aren't you?" I said, narrowing my eyes at her.
"So much." She replied bursting out with laughter.
"1…2…" I started. She immediately stopped laughing, her eyes widening.
"Oh no." And with that she started to run.
"3" And I started to chase after her. I caught her around the waist, pulled her to the ground, and started to tickle the mickey out of her. Her laughter rang through the garden, and right there and then I knew we had a long, beautiful future ahead of
Alphy Neenie & Drake
yNeenieTheir Garden