"Mommy, look! A doggy!"
Children loved animals. Molly McGinnis's children especially loved them, as Molly had learned over the years. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing wrong with this...except when your four-year-old was thrusting a katydid-filled fist in your face, or you found toads in your grand piano, or, as in this case, the children found a huge, black, and distinctly uncollared dog that looked as sickly as all the rabies in the world, but insisted on throwing caution to the wind, running up to pet it as though it belonged to the neighbors next door.
Katie, the four-year-old, had cried out and gone running after the dog. Nathaniel, who was seven, had followed her.
"Susan!" Molly cried to her eldest daughter, who was eleven, "Susan, don't let Katie touch the dog!"
But the dog wasn't about to harm Katie, at least, not at this moment; it was laying almost motionless on the sandy beach, unconscious. The slow, faint movement of his rib cagee was the only testament to the fact that he lived still.
"Is he dead, mommy?" Katie asked of her mother, her eyes wide with horror.
Molly crouched next to the dog. "I don't know, sweetie...he looks awfully sick." She touched the animal gently and he responded with a faint whine. "We should go and get your father." Charlie, Molly's husband, would know how to care for the dog, she knew. He wasn't a veterinarian, but he'd grown up on a farm, so he knew a lot about helping sick animals.
No sooner had Molly made the suggestion than Katie was racing up the hillside to the McGinnis's beachside home, her siblings following close behind. Molly started off after them, and reflected, as she watched Katie running uphill as fast as her legs could carry her, that she couldn't help but admire the child's compassion.
And her energy.
Opening his eyes, the black dog whimpered. He was weak, sore, and waterlogged, but he felt triumphant in spite of his physical condition; he'd made it. He raised his head slowly, saw that there was not a soul in sight, and in a moment, the dog was gone and Sirius Black was sitting on the beach in his place.
It was an unnecessary risk, he knew, to resume his human form right now, but it felt too good. The hell was over, and it was like waking up after a bad dream...or thawing out after being frozen.
Yes, Sirius thought as he stretched out his limbs to let the morning sun warm him, it was exactly like thawing out after being frozen. Bad dreams, on the other hand, were different; you never woke up after a bad dream and wondered if the world you found yourself in was the real one. But Sirius couldn't believe his nightmare was over, for his prison had become his only reality in the last four years. You might lose your sense of reality in Azkaban, but you never lost your sense of the time passing, your sense of the monotony and the fact that your ordeal wasn't about to end anytime soon. Relief seemed impossible after that.
Sirius was interrupted from his thinking by the sound of voices in the distance It wasn't long before he realized he'd made a mistake; he had company.
Five people were rushing down the hillside towards him, a man, a woman and three young children. They were dressed in muggle clothes and appeared to be a family. Sirius realized, too late, that they'd seen him before he'd seen them. He also realized that they were regarding him with confused stares and were also most definitely headed in his directed.
He glanced down at his ragged wizarding robes, imagining what the rest of his appearance must be like. How would he explain himself? He could barely sit up and felt extremely woozy, so simply running for it was out of the question...
Soon, the family had reached him. The woman approached him first, and crouched down next to him, regarding him with a confused gaze.
"Do you speak English?" she asked him. She was very short and of slight build, neither fat nor thin, and had shoulder-length brown hair. Her eyes were wide and inquisitive as she looked at him, but her gaze was warm.
"Yes," Sirius answered impulsively, and immediately regretted it. Damn...idiot! he cursed himself. If he'd just kept his mouth shut, he wouldn't have had to explain anything.
"How did you get here?" the woman asked him.
"I..I swam," Sirius answered stupidly.
"Swam..?" she murmured, "well...from where?"
Sirius was unable to think of a satisfactory answer and just sat there dumbly for a long moment.
"Do you remember where you came from?" the man prompted him, giving Sirius an idea.
"No," he said, trying to sound confused and finding it extremely easy, "I don't remember...anything."
He saw the couple exchange a meaningful glance, as though asking each other, "Well, what do we do now?"
"So where's the dog?"
The sickly black dog had been forgotten by all. All, that is, except Katie, who momentarily diverted the little crowd's attention away from Sirius. She had been searching for the animal all this time, and was now standing with her fists on her hips and a scowl on her round face as she demanded to know what had become of him.
Molly McGinnis sighed. "I don't know, sweetie..." she started, but saw that her daughter, still scowling resolutely and shaking her head at the seashore in confusion, would not be appeased by such an answer. In desperation, she turned to the soggy, ragged man sitting in the sand.
"Did you see a black dog anywhere around here?" she asked him, but Sirius shook his head. "Maybe he ran away, sweetie," Molly suggested to her daughter.
Katie was staring suspiciously at Sirius. Pointing to him, she said, "He was sitting right there!"
"Katie," Charles said softly to his daughter, placing his hands on her small shoulders, "Maybe the dog was further down the beach than you thought. That, " he directed his voice to Molly as well, "would also explain why you didn't see this man before."
"He was right there, " Katie repeated. Sirius strongly felt that, for a four-year-old, she could put quite a tone of menace into her voice.
Susan grasped her little sister's hand. "Katie, how 'bout we go look for the doggy, okay?"
"Yes," Charles agreed, somewhat distractedly, "Go look for the doggie, kids, and we'll..." he paused, looking at Sirius, "We'll see what we can do for this fellow."
Begrudgingly, Katie went with her sister, Nathaniel following close behind as they headed down the shore.
Sirius followed the children with his eyes for a long moment, something akin to wonder lighting his face as he watched them trotting merrily down the shore of the beach. After a moment, he turned back to Molly and founding her looking not at her children, but at him. She smiled, and offered him her hand.
"Can you walk, sir?"
Sirius took her hand and allowed her to help him to his feet, but as soon he stood, his legs failed him and he began to collapse. Molly caught him easily, and with her husband's help, supported him as they made their way up to the house.
She whistled. "You've surely been through something rough, friend."