It was a cold and bitter December morning in the capital of both magical and muggle Britain, Christmas decorations starting to materialise in windows, many Londoners opting to don a pair of gloves whilst traversing the city. However, there was one notable exception to this.
Heart pounding and the sweat beginning to collect just above his brow, Sig continued to push his body to its limit. He had started running just 3 months earlier in a bid to force himself into completing the famous London marathon which was scheduled to occur in mid-April this year. He still didn't know exactly why he was doing this to himself but he knew that he couldn't quit now.
Cygnus Flanagan was not a quitter, during gruelling years at public school he had fought tooth and nail to get to the top of his class in every single category he could do so. He still, as far as he were aware, had the best grades ever achieved at his grammar school, St Marie's, in Chemistry, French, Spanish, Music and Physics and was close to the records on several other subjects. Playing bass trombone he had even performed with the Young Orchestral Society of Britain in the iconic Royal Albert Hall.
Leaving just 6 months earlier, Cygnus had chosen not to follow the few friends that he hadn't intimidated away to university and instead had chosen to take a year out of his studies in order to "see the world." Yet here he was, still in the massive city, toning his body to withstand the trials of 26 miles and hadn't travelled any further north in the last 3 years than the industrial town of Slough, on the outskirts of the capital.
Coming from an orphanage just near Watford, he had been adopted by the Flanagan family at the age of 2. His foster parents, Barbara and Jeremy had met in their final year of school and had gotten married just a year later. Jeremy Flanagan worked in the Department of Work and Pensions, heading up the team that had to deal with trying to find dirt on illegal immigrants in large companies. In fact, it was quite a boring job if the truth were told and Jeremy instead spent his work hours either on Facebook or playing a selection of games on his mobile.
Barbara on the other hand was an art teacher at the local comprehensive, it was perfect for her caring nature and she loved both the kids she educated and the job itself, despite how much of her social life it forced her to sacrifice. Both her and her spouse were only the tender age of 33 and her adopted son, Cygnus now was just about to become 18 where he said that he would move out and finally start university.
Cygnus reflected on his life as he entered the final straight of his route around the sodden path in Hyde Park, he then headed back to the Flanagan apartment situated in some high-rise council estate nearby, he still had no clue who his birth parents were or why the fact that his birth name, Black had such a strong connection to nobility either. As far as he was concerned, his family name was Flanagan and the Black family could go to hell if they ever did reveal themselves to him.
His mind worked back to a news report that he had seen four years previous which described the on the run mass murderer called Sirius Black. The madman had the same dark, crazy hair of Cygnus and the mysterious second name as well. He had been determined to find out if the criminal was in fact related to him in any way and to visit him in prison when he was caught again to confront him about being abandoned at an orphanage without as much as even a note.
Four years previous, during the years of Prisoner of Azkaban
Cygnus booted up his laptop with new found purpose and headed straight to the BBC news website and to the Interpol address as well, he wanted to find out about this Sirius Black. No, he had to find out about this man that had escaped from prison. He mashed on the keys typing as quick as his long, almost skeletal hands would allow, he clicked on the small magnifying glass icon and sat back waiting on the internet showing him the fruits of his labours.
Several minutes passed by with only the noise of the machine, this was on its last legs, to accompany him before he was rewarded with the new web pages being displayed on the small screen. He scanned through the pages on both websites before loudly cursing one of his favourite French words. There were no results at all on either site about this apparent mass murdering psychopath whose name he had heard on the old radio that sat in their kitchen. Confused but also intrigued, Cygnus tried several other local and international sites but to no avail, this man, the only link he might have to his real family was a ghost.
Back in present day London, December 2014
Cygnus was stretching off in the courtyard outside of the Flanagan household when he sensed a presence behind him, pivoting around on one foot and immediately going into a defensive stance that was borrowed from the jujitsu discipline, he growled "Show yourself, I can sense you and there's no point in hiding. What do you want with me?"
The hedges at the border of the yard whistled in the wind before a large, scruffy, and dark grim trotted out. Cygnus swore, it was just a dog even if it was so bloody big but he wasn't satisfied that it was just a dog and he stayed in his stance in case the attack was still to come.
The hound timidly stepped toward Cygnus and gently nudged his knee cap and promptly sat down in front of him as if it was expecting a treat.
Cygnus stared right into the eyes of the grim, dumbfounded by this animal. Then he said something that he had no idea was in his vocabulary, "Padfoot?"
