"Sirius! Slow down!"
Regulus's words were muffled by his pants as he raced across the grassy meadow after his elder brother. If Sirius could hear his calls, he ignored them, charging ahead relentlessly towards the kennel building at the far end of the pasture.
At long last, the enclosed sound of the yapping of crups filled the air as they approached the building at last. Regulus staggered to a halt beside Sirius at the front gate of the mesh wire fence surrounding the building, bent double and staring down at the ground as he fought to regain his breath.
The sudden rattling sound of metal drew up his gaze to find Sirius yanking open the wire gate of the fence surrounding the building.
"Sirius, I really don't think we should be doing this" said the younger boy as he reluctantly followed his elder brother into the compound.
"It'll be fine, Reg" replied Sirius dismissively. "Just leave it to me, alright?"
Regulus clutched his brother's cloak (which Sirius seemed to have no intention of putting back on any time soon), gripping it tightly as if for support as he walked, following Sirius's confident march through the door and into the darkened kennels.
The pungent smell of straw and dog fur hung heavy in the air and neither boy could help wrinkling their noses automatically as they entered the kennels. But they were quickly distracted by the fierce onslaught of loud barking that flared up within seconds of them entering.
Each side of the long, narrow building was divided into sections, creating a series of large pens, each one with a barred door facing into the central walkway. Through the bars of each door protruded a large cluster of curiously-twitching black noses, each one attached to an over-excited little dog that clamoured over its kennel-mates, letting out a sharp, high-pitched bark as it fought to get a look at the new arrivals to their world.
At the rear end of each pile of wriggling crups, a mass of distinctive, white-tipped, forked tails wagged to and fro furiously.
Regulus's first instinct was to back away from the rather intimidating creatures as they strained their barking mouths with their gleaming, white teeth through the bars in his direction. All he could seem to picture in his mind as he stared into the yapping mouths of the dogs was what those many, impeccable teeth could do to the soft skin of a jarvey's neck.
Sirius, however, much to his little brother's alarm, had gone rushing over to the bars of the nearest kennel and had knelt down on the slightly damp concrete floor to examine the dogs at eye-level.
"Sirius, don't! Come away!" Regulus urged his brother, his eyes widening in alarm as his brother leaned in for a closer look at the snapping jaws of the crups. His brother was almost nose-to-nose with the dogs, which Regulus could only see ending in disaster.
"Come and look at them, Reg!" Sirius said excitedly, ignoring Regulus's plea point blank and waving his hand for his brother to join him. "Aren't they brilliant?"
"That's... not the word I'd use" Regulus mumbled, making no effort to obey his brother's wishes and join him in front of the barred kennel door.
"Don't talk daft, Reg" Sirius scoffed with a chuckle. "You're not afraid of a few mutts, are you? They only want to play"
Sirius reached out a hand to stroke the tip of one of the black noses that strained eagerly through the bars towards him.
"I'd watch yourself if I were you, lad. They may be small, but I assure you, their bite is sharp"
The sound of the distinctly adult voice sent the heads of both boys whirling round towards the kennel door where stood the kennel manager, an aged half-blood wizard dressed in worn, dirty clothes and a cloth cap with frayed edges crammed over the top of his messy, greying hair, complete with a look of clearly-feigned sternness mingled with amusement on his lined face at the sight before him.
"They won't bite me" Sirius replied confidently, his tone taking on a somewhat haughtier air as he addressed the man than it had when speaking to his brother. "Look at their tails, they're wagging them. They just want to play, that's all"
"Oh aye, those tails may be wagging, but they'll quite happily nip you in passing and think nothing of it, believe you me" the kennel manager replied, brushing down the front of his work clothes, sending a cloud of dusk billowing into the sunlight-streaked air around him.
He was clearly unphased by the superior way in which the young Black spoke to him.
He strode up to stand beside Sirius, leaning casually against the kennel wall.
He stuck out his hand for Sirius to see.
"See them?" he said, nodding at the variety of pinkish scars littering the skin of his hand and arm. "Them dogs have one hell of a playful nip. So I'd watch them fingers if I were you. Best not poke them through the bars"
Sirius scowled sulkily, disgruntled at being told off. Nevertheless, he pulled back the hand he had poised to reach through the bars to pat the dogs and rose to his feet, crossing his arms stubbornly across his chest.
"Although, there is one trick..."
The wizard rummaged in his deep trouser pockets, pulling out a handful of small dog biscuits.
"Very food-drive, crups are" he explained to the two boys watching him keenly. "Eat anything you leave lying around, they will. And I mean anything. But they do have a special fondness for biscuits. Here, watch"
The wizard reached out his handful of biscuits towards the bars, causing the crups behind them to grow all the more excited, snapping wildly. But as the crup at the front of the pack received his reward of a single biscuit from the wizard's fingers, he seemed to melt instantly. Gone was his tense posture, his lashing tail calmed to a pleasant wag and he licked at the kennel manager's hand fondly, begging for another, the imagine of docility.
"There now, see? One biscuit and they'll sooner bite their own tails off than give you a nip, lest they risk being denied another"
"That's brilliant" Sirius breathed with an excited grin. "Can I try?"
"Best not" said the kennel manager, pocketing the rest of the biscuits, much to the dismay of the rest of the pack. "Wouldn't want to risk you losing any of your fingers quite so young. Now, might I ask what brings you two boys here today? I can't think what two young lads like yourself would want to be hiding away in a stuffy old kennel for on a sunny day like this"
Regulus opened his mouth to explain.
"We were just-"
"We've come to borrow a crup" said Sirius instantly, his tone decidedly more serious and demanding now that they'd gotten down to business.
He seemed to stand up straighter, his chest pushed out, eager to scrounge every last crumb of height available at his disposal. "The best hunter of the lot, if you please. We'll bring it back later today"
To Sirius's obvious annoyance, the kennel manager chuckled to himself in amusement.
"Oh aye, you're wanting to borrow a crup, are you?" he asked, sticking his hands into his trouser pockets casually. "And what would you be wanting one of them for, hmm?"
"For hunting, obviously" Sirius replied, putting on his best impression of the stern face he'd seen his parents adopt when dealing with impertinent staff. "We've a jarvey to catch. And it needs to be quickly, this afternoon, so make sure it's one with a good catch record, please"
The older wizard shook his head, smiling in bemusement.
"No can do, I'm afraid, lad" he said, dismissively.
"And why not?"
"Sirius..."
The younger Black felt uneasy hearing his brother's attempt at making demands. They were sure to be in so much trouble if the adults found out about his impertinence.
"Not now, Reg"
Sirius didn't look at his brother. He kept his gaze bravely fixed on the older man before him, though Regulus could see his fingers beginning to fidget with a loose threat on the inside of his robe sleeve, one of Sirius's few signs of nerves.
To Regulus's relief, the kennel manager did not look angry with his brother. He merely seemed amused at the sight of the nine-year-old boy before him, pretending to be Lord of the Manor for the day.
"Look, just let me borrow the crup, alright? I said we'll bring it back in a bit" Sirius's voice had dropped an ounce of its grandeur.
"Come now, lad, you don't honestly believe I would just let you walk out of here with one of these dogs, do you?" the half-blood asked, jerking his head towards the pack of crups in the kennel behind him.
The dogs had calmed, somewhat, bored of the new arrivals now. Some had wandered off to snooze in the sun in the outside run of their kennel whilst others tussled with each other, playfully snapping at their ears and tails.
"Well, why not?" Sirius asked, valiantly attempting to keep up his appearance of entitlement.
"Because they're valuable working dogs" said the man. "More to the point, they're your grandfather's working dogs. I can just see his face when I tell him one of his best hunters is gone because I let his eight-year-old grandson walk out of here with it, can I? I'd be for the sack before sundown"
"I'm nine, actually, not eight" Sirius snapped, indignant. "And I wouldn't lose it! We just need one to catch a jarvey quick!"
The kennel manager chuckled again, shaking his head.
"You're a right piece of work, young sir, that's what you are" he laughed to himself. "It's not as simple as letting the dog loose in the forest and waiting for it to drop a dead jarvey at your feet, you know. It takes practice. A crup is a tool, not a servant, lad. You need to know how to use it, guide it, not simply order it to bring you what you want and wait for it to do so. You won't be catching no jarveys on your own for a good few years yet, I'll bet. If memory serves, aren't you yourself currently banned from going along with any further hunts after last year's debacle?"
Regulus bit his lip anxiously as he watched his brother's face flush red with humiliated anger.
"Now, best be on your way, boys" said the kennel manager, digging his wand out of one of his deep pockets. "It's time I got on with the mucking out and I doubt you'd want to stick around for that, now, would you?"
"I don't care a jot about no bad smells" Sirius snapped, moodily, all trace of his former attempt at superiority gone, replaced by a distinct air of childish sulkiness.
"I'm sure you don't" replied the aged wizard with a smirk, flicking his wand towards the small storage shed at the far end of the kennel block.
The door unlatched itself and out flew a succession of much shovels, each one floating gracefully into a kennel pen. The sound of metal scraping on concrete filled the room and each shovel appeared once again, floating up and over the walls of the pens to deposit a scoopful of soiled straw bedding each into the large wheelbarrow that had parked itself in the middle of the walkway.
"But I expect your mama wouldn't be too pleased if you arrived back at the big house for your tea with muck all over your robes, hmm?"
His words, though patronising in tone, rang with truth. Clouds of dusk rose from each of the pens as the straw and sawdust were scooped out and the occasional piece of muck dropped from the air from the overloaded shovels.
"Come on, Reg, lets get out of here" said Sirius, turning away from the older wizard and grabbing his little brother by the sleeve of his robe.
Regulus allowed Sirius to pull him back up the walkway towards the door, only too happy to get out of the stuffy building.
He did, however, crane his neck round to shoot an apologetic farewell smile at the kennel manager, who tipped his flat, cloth cap at the young Black before turning his attention back to the cleaning going on around him.
"You were so rude to him, Sirius!" Regulus scolded his brother as they left the building, the blinding light of the warm sunshine washing over them.
"No I wasn't!" Sirius snapped back. "I simply wanted what he should have given us"
"He didn't have to give us one"
"Yes he did. He's staff and we're Blacks, which makes them as much ours as anyone else's in the family"
"But you heard him, Sirius. You don't know how to use a crup. And like he said, grandfather would be so cross with us if he found out..."
Regulus shuddered a little. He found Arcturus Black to be an intimidatingly stern figure at the best of times, let alone when he was cross with them.
"That silly old half-blood doesn't know anything" Sirius insisted as he wrenched open the wire gate to the fence of the compound. "And anyway, Grandfather wouldn't be able to be cross with us when we show him that we caught a-"
Sirius paused midway through the gate, suddenly jerking his head in the direction of a faint noise which filled his ears.
"Sirius? What-"
"Shh, Reg. Listen. What's that noise?"
Regulus listened hard. He couldn't hear anything abnormal. The rustle of the tree leaves in the light breeze, the occasional twitter of a bird, the incessant yapping of crups in the distance.
"It's just the crups barking, Sirius" said Regulus.
"No, it's not" said Sirius, jerking his head around in search of the origin of the noise. "It's higher than them. I think it's..."
Without bothering to grace his brother with a reply, Sirius took off, back into the compound and dashing around the corner of the main kennel block.
"Sirius! Come back!"
Regulus hurried after his brother as he darted along the concrete path to a much smaller building, only about the size of a shed, at the far edge of the compound. Regulus could hear clearly now the distinct, higher yapping of dogs coming from the building.
"I knew it!" came Sirius's triumphant shriek as he stood up on the tips of his feet to peer through the small window on the side of the hut. "Cruppies! Come look, Reg!"
Being a tad smaller than his elder brother, Regulus had to jump up to catch a glimpse of the creatures inside the hut before he landed back down again, and by the time he had gotten a successful look at the scene inside, he was quite out of breath.
It was rather dark inside the hut, save for the little gap in the wall leading through to the outdoor run which let sunlight stream through. The floor was thickly bedded with straw, more densely than that of the larger kennels. In the corner, in what appeared to be a nest made of gathered up straw, sat a crup which stared at the two boys through the window, bearing her teeth threateningly at them. She had good right to be wary of strangers. For gathered around her was a cluster of cruppies, each one a wriggling mass of black-and-white fur with lashing little forked tails.
Their little bodies were rounder, chubbier than the sleek, muscular adults and their fur didn't seem to quite shine the same way. On closer inspection, it seemed to resemble more tufty fluff than smooth coat. They pottered about their straw next on stubby little legs, tripping over either their own feet, each other, or simply just the straw bedding, yapping happily as they tumbled about at their mother's feet.
"Aren't they brilliant, Reg?" Sirius gushed as he peered through the window, taking up all of the available space to gaze through at them playing. "How many d'you think there are? I can't count them, they're wriggling about too fast..."
"The mother didn't look too friendly" said Regulus, rather wishing he could get another glimpse at the pups. Despite their snarling mother, the pups themselves had looked quite cute, from what he had seen...
"C'mon, lets get a closer look" said Sirius, dashing round from the window to the locked door to the shed entrance.
"No, Sirius!" Regulus urged his brother as he watched him fiddle with the padlock on the door. "You saw how the mother was growling, she's sure to bite you if you go in there!"
"Nah, she won't. Look what I've got"
With a mischievous grin, Sirius pulled out of his robes pocket several sugar biscuits, the same ones that had been served at yesterday's afternoon tea.
"I bet that old half-blood isn't the only one who can make friends with a crup"
"How long were you going to keep them in there for?" asked Regulus, wrinkling his nose at the crumbs littering the fabric of Sirius's robes.
"Until I got peckish this afternoon" said Sirius. "But, on second thoughts, I think that crup would be better off having them"
"You can't even get in, anyway, it's locked"
"Not for long..."
Regulus tilted his head, puzzled for a moment, before his mouth fell open in shock at the sight before him.
Sirius had wrapped his fingers tight around the padlock, closed his eyes and screwed up his face in fierce concentration.
To Regulus's surprise, and horror, there was a slight rattling of metal as the padlock shook against it's hook and a flurry of minute sparks crackled for several seconds around Sirius's hand.
The padlock came away with a click.
"How did you do that?" asked Regulus in awe.
"Been practising" said Sirius with a proud smirk as he pocketed the padlock. He was clearly very proud of his mastery of his magic at such a young age, even if it was just for this one specific skill.
He suppressed the urge to rub his sore temples. The immense effort of forcing his wild, youthful magic into performing a single, controlled task never failed to give him a throbbing headache.
"Come on, then!"
Sirius eased open the shed door, flinching ever so slightly as the mother crup's growls grew louder over the sound of the creaking wood.
"Hey, it's okay..." he whispered to the crup, crouching slightly as he took a hesitant half-step forward into the darkness of the shed. "Look what I've got, see?"
Sirius held up his palm with the biscuits in clear view. The mother crup's nose twitched slightly, but continued growling relentlessly.
"You want one? Here!"
Regulus winced as he watched Sirius toss one of the biscuits at the crup.
The dog leaped into the air, catching the biscuit neatly in her mouth and crunching it down in a single bite. The pups around her, having seen the food on offer, immediately clamoured around their mother, incessantly yapping, demanding some for themselves.
Regulus could count them now, in full view from behind Sirius. There were six cruppies all together.
"You guys want some as well?" Sirius asked with a grin, breaking up one of his two remaining biscuits into smaller pieces. "Here, then"
He tossed the little pieces at the cruppies, grinning as he watched the little creatures hop in the air, a less graceful imitation of their mother. But still, they each caught the pieces on the first try.
"See, I'm not gonna hurt them..."
Regulus was surprised at how calm and soft his brother's voice was as he spoke to the mother crup, who's growling had quietened once she'd seen her offspring fed by the intruder to their den.
Sirius took another step forward into the den, his palm outstretched with his last remaining biscuit on offer. He crept slowly towards the mother crup, never once taking his eyes off of her, until her twitching black nose was brushing his fingertips.
"Go on, girl, take it..." Sirius murmured to the crup.
And to both his and his brother's surprise, she did.
"Nice work there, lad"
The sound of the kennel manager's voice behind them startled both boys.
Sirius whirled round to see the aged wizard stood behind Regulus with his arms folded and a somewhat impressed look on his face.
"We're sorry!" Regulus squeaked anxiously. "We shouldn't have-"
"Can I have one of the cruppies?"
Sirius's bold question in the face of having been caught breaking and entering sent a wave of nervous shivers running through his little brother like a cold shower. He stared, wide-eyed and disbelieving at his brother, who's empty palm was now being thoroughly licked by an army of little pink tongues. The pups pawed their way over each other to snaffle up every last trace of crumb from his hand, the mother crup content to let her offspring loose on the now-approved-of intruder.
"Afraid not, lad" said the kennel manager with a shake of his head, leaning casually against the shed wall. "Like I said before, these dogs ain't pets, they're working animals. And them pups are the next generation of hunters and showers for your grandfather's bloodline. They're smaller and more cuddly than the adults but they're just as much hard work, believe you me"
"Well if these dogs are the next generation, then they will one day be mine, anyway!" Sirius protested. "So why can't I have one now?"
The wizard chuckled in bemusement again, much to Sirius's irritation.
"You're a clever little so-and-so, I'll give you that, boy" he remarked. "But if they're going to be yours one day anyway then you may as well wait. What's the hurry? Besides, they're no use for your little jarvey-hunting plans today, anyway. They've got the instinct bred into them alright but they've not had the practice yet. Reckon the jarvey would sooner drag them out of the burrow than the other way round"
Sirius stood up straight and tall, clenching his fists tightly in frustration.
"Well if you won't give me one, then I'll ask grandfather myself. After all, as you say, they are his dogs"
The aged wizard sighed, shaking his head again.
"Look, lad, you're doing yourself no favours, harking on about wanting one of these crups, fully grown or not. If it's a pet you're after, you go and ask your papa to get down the Menagerie and buy you a lapdog. You'll be all the happier for it in the long run, trust me"
Sirius's nostrils flared angrily.
"Lapdogs are for girls!" he snapped. "And I don't want a pet. I want a hunter. Come on, Reg, looks like we'll have to sort it ourselves"
And with that, Sirius marched out of the shed and past the bemused old wizard, grabbing hold of his brother's arm along the way.
"Hold up there, boy!" the kennel manager called after the two boys.
Sirius halted and turned round, hesitantly.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Sirius flushed slightly as he fumbled in his robe pocket, pulling out the padlock. He tossed it, rather aimlessly, in the general direction of the older wizard, who caught it in midair seemingly effortlessly.
"Cheers" the man called back, doffing his cap. "Oh, and by the way, that's rather an impressive feat of magic. For a nine year old"
Sirius practically stomped all the way back to the house, Regulus trailing in his wake.
Regulus craned his neck back round to shoot the kennel manager another apologetic look by way of farewell.
As the old man doffed his cap to him with a friendly smile, it suddenly occurred to Regulus that they had never thought to ask the man's name.
"You're not really going to ask Grandfather for one of those puppies, are you, Sirius?" the younger brother asked, somewhat nervously. Sirius's mood could be delicate after being refused to have his way. The slightest wrong word could turn his anger towards Regulus. He would regret it later and even offer an apology, but it still stung.
"Cruppies, Reg. They're better than normal puppies. And of course I am" Sirius replied confidently.
"What do you want one for, anyway? You heard the man, the pu- cruppies, aren't trained yet, they won't catch a jarvey"
"I heard what he said, Reg. And that's the point. Don't you see? Think about how pleased Papa and Grandfather will be when they find out I caught a jarvey with my own crup! Not just any old crup, but one I trained all by myself!"
"You can't train a jarvey, Sirius, you don't know how!"
"Yes I do" Sirius's voice was stiff with determination. "I read up on it in a training manual, last week"
"What book?"
"Found it in the library, that day Mama made me stay inside all day"
"Oh yes, after you got caught trying to sneak a worm into the chocolate cake at tea"
Regulus giggled at the memory. He could, in hindsight. At the time, however, the fury on Mama's face was enough to freeze him to the spot completely, and she wasn't even angry at him.
"Yes, that day" Sirius replied, gritting his teeth bitterly at the memory. "Still, all paid off in the end, didn't it? Tomorrow we train a crup!"
"Grandfather's never going to say yes"
"He will"
"How do you know?" Regulus asked, looking up at his elder brother as they reached the rear entrance to the house at last.
The smell of the freshly-baked bread for afternoon tea sandwiches filled the air, making the stomachs of both boys growl hungrily.
Sirius turned to his little brother, flashing him a trademark cheeky grin.
"Because I'll simply tell him what he wants to hear"