Disclaimer: I do not own the character Sirius Black.
Chapter 1
Sirius woke with a start. He had been sleeping in a small, secluded area of the cave he was staying in, where he was pretty sure no one would find him. His sleep had probably been one of the few closest ones to being peaceful, for sleep was never peaceful in his world. He was convicted of being a Death Eater and a notorious murderer. He was neither of these, and a few people out there knew it, but as far as the general population went, he was in league with Voldemort, had murdered and betrayed innocent people, and was a highly dangerous killer on the loose. That last part might be true, thought Sirius with a grim chuckle. It was true, if anyone were to cross Sirius' path and dare to challenge him, they might not be so lucky as to live another day. Another minute, in fact.
Suddenly, he froze. His dog ears, for he was in his Animagus form of a huge black dog, had picked up a sound. His impulse was to hide and go even further into the unknown depths of the cave, but his curiosity told him to investigate and figure out what it was. He stayed still for a few long minutes, and after hearing no voices and seeing no signs of anyone, he was pretty sure there was no one there and it was probably only an animal looking for somewhere to sleep. He relaxed slightly and walked out of his hiding area closer to the open mouth of the cave. That was fortunate, he thought to himself, but you still need to be more careful. Sirius, no matter where you may be hiding, there are witches and wizards everywhere, and many of them are looking for you. Never let curiosity get the better of you. Your instinct to hide when you sense someone coming is what will keep you safer from getting caught. He sighed, and padded slowly towards the mouth of the cave to see if he could find anything to eat. His eyes scanned the cave in search of rats or anything else that could satisfy his seemingly endless hunger.
As he looked over the right side of the cave, he stopped abruptly and his whole body stiffened as his eyes locked onto something. Right next to the mouth of the cave, huddled close to the wall, curled up as much as possible, was a human. After taking a few steps closer, he could tell it was a girl, probably a young teenager or close to her teenage years.
Whoever it is, I'm not taking any chances, thought Sirius, and turned to retreat into his secluded area. However, he whirled around sharply when he heard a noise behind him. That was stupid, he snapped at himself inwardly. How many times has it been when an enemy has attacked there prey while their back was turned?
However, Sirius soon realized that, if the girl was an enemy, she had no plans of attacking at the moment, because the sound he had heard was just a sniff. Apparently, the girl had been crying. She probably came here to hide, thought Sirius. I'll just wait until she leaves, and then I'll get something to eat. As he walked back, slowly so as to not make any noise, he looked back at the girl to make sure she hadn't noticed him. While his head was turned, he lost sight of where he was going and tripped over a sharp rock, which cut a sharp gash in his front left paw. Automatically, he let out a cry of pain and frustration, then forced himself to be quiet as he realized what he had done. Hoping that the girl hadn't heard, he got up and, once again, began padding towards his hiding spot, which took a lot more time and a lot more effort since he could not step on his front left paw. Well, today is definitely my day for making stupid mistakes, he grumbled inside his mind.
"Wait!" The girl had moved from her place against the wall, and was now standing up, staring at Sirius in dog form.