Padfoot Returns

"How is he?" Christine asked Leo anxiously as he came in from the garden.

"Well he shouted at me if that tells you anything."

"Maybe I should try talking to him again, if I could explain…" Christine went towards the door.

"I don't think it will help. He just needs time to cool off. He can't keep this up for long."

Christine looked wistfully out the window, as if she could see Caster, although he was round the other side of the house sulking under a tree.

"I even threatened to hex him but he-"

"You didn't!" Christine started running towards the door.

"I wasn't going to do anything- relax. It was just an empty threat."

"Well you shouldn't even joke about hexing people…."

And Christine went into a long rant to her son about hexing people, in particular his little brother who was delicate and needed to be looked after and not threatened.

Sirius hung back from the conversation trying to pretend that he wasn't there. He was almost relieved when Evan floated into the room.

"I have to say I'm surprised," Evan said sounding thoughtful. "If I were Caster I would have thought I'd had a lucky escape. At least his father was vaguely respectable."

Sirius opened his mouth to defend himself but Leo beat him to it, "If you think so little of him he must be good- sorry I ever doubted you Black."

Black. It sounded odd. "You know you could call me…." Dad? Father? Sir? Padfoot? "Sirius."

Leo shrugged. "All right, Sirius."

"Why don't you too take some time to talk while I go make the tea?" Christine said, still peering out the window.

Sirius looked at Leo and Leo looked back at him for a moment Sirius thought he could hear them both gulp.

"Evan I'll need your help in the kitchen," Christine quickly said as she left the room. Evan smiled in a way that, on anyone else, would have seemed pleasant, then followed his sister.

Sirius didn't know how long they sat in silence for but it seemed like a lifetime. What was he meant to say?

"So… er- you like Quidditch?"

Leo smiled, "It's ok- I prefer just flying though. The Slytherins keep begging me to join the house team but I have better things to be doing."

The Slytherins. Sirius had forgotten that his son was in Slytherin. He tried to think of something to say that didn't link to this… Leo probably didn't like Gryffindors but then Caster was in Gryffindor…. "What better things?"

A mischievous glint appeared in Leo's eye which Sirius knew he had got from him. "I like to carry out experiments."

"What kind of experiments?" Sirius hoped that it was the pranking kind. Perhaps he and his son would have more in common than he first thought.

"All kinds- things with time, the after life- Uncle Evan is useful for those… all sorts really. I want to be an Unspeakable. I just love the idea of solving all those mysteries and I bet they already know tons of things that they haven't told anyone. Though, part of me would love to be an Auror but that's mostly just to annoy Uncle Evan. What did you used to do before…"

"Oh, I- " Sirius stopped himself before he mentioned the order, he supposed that was still a secret. "This and that; I was never that serious about a career."

A sudden eruption of shouting was heard from the kitchen. Leo and Sirius exchanged looks. "I'd better check out what's going on- do you know where the Geist- Glas is? I think things might be a bit easier if Uncle Evan was contained for a while…"

Sirius shrugged and Leo casually left the room. He didn't seem that enthralled by the sudden arrival of his father but then he was probably too old for that sort of thing.

For a while Sirius sat and listened to the arguments as they blazed. Leo's voice adding to the furore but then he decided that he couldn't stand it any longer so he transformed into Padfoot and stepped out into the garden.

Sometimes it was just easier to be a dog than to be a man. Padfoot was like a haven to him. When the Dementors got too much he would transform and, almost out of habit, it just felt right for him to disappear into the large black dog now and enjoy some of the simpler things in life.

He walked past the bird cages causing the brightly coloured bird to squawk in alarm, not being accustomed to seeing a large black dog.

He then walked around the side of the house and saw a nice shady tree where he went to sit under- the sun really was relentless and though he enjoyed the warmth sometimes it just seemed too much in comparison to what he was used to.

He lay down and rested his head on his paws, closing his eyes, the sounds of the argument nothing more than a distant chatter.

"Oh, hello- what are you doing here?"

Sirius listened to the sound of Caster as he walked through the long grass over to where Sirius was lying. He even smelt like Regulus. He slowly opened his eyes.

"Who do you belong to?"

Caster was looking down at him, his face was all puffy and it looked as though he had been crying but as he looked at Sirius a warm smile spread across his face. He sat down beside him and began to smooth Sirius' ears.

"How are you today then, boy? Well you look happy enough. Sometimes I wish I was a dog- I think it would be a lot easier. You don't have a care in the world, do you?"

Sirius let out a snort; that was far from the truth.

For a while Caster sat in silence just smoothing Sirius' fur then, all of a sudden he stopped and looked down at him.

"Were you at Hogwarts?"

Caster stood up and backed away. "Wait a minute… is this your animagus form? Sirius?"

He was discovered. There was nothing else he could do. Sirius transformed back into human form.

"Yes, it's me."

"I think I like you better as the dog," Caster said moodily.