NOTE!!! This is NOT THE NEXT CHAPTER OF COEUR DE LOUPE. This is a snipper to show that it IS being written, and will be up as soon as is possible. This is for all the wonderful, WONDERFUL people who have read, reviewed, and especially for those who wrote me emails or IMed me. Thank you all, so very much. This is just to tide you over. Or torture you. Or something. Or to entice more reviews, in the hopes that they will inspire me to write more. Thank you all for your patience!


He met the black dog again the next day. It was 'met' in the sense that he saw the beast, and the beast saw him, and they spoke as only they could, through a puffing of breath and a beating of hearts and a rustling of fur and air over skin.

Hello, said the black dog, Padfoot.

"Hullo," said Sirius.

Why have you woken me? asked Padfoot.

Let sleeping dogs lie, thought Sirius.

"Because I had no other choice," said Sirius.

Because you could think of no other choice, said Padfoot.

"But this is the right choice, isn't it?" asked Sirius. For a moment, it seemed as if Padfoot would not reply.

I think so, said Padfoot at last. He dragged his snuffling wet nose coldly over the side of Sirius's cheek, understanding his scent. Suddenly, Sirius knew they had the same scent, one heavier and doggish, but the essential was unchangeable, just as no one thing was different from another, when it had to do with your self. Sirius laughed a little. It tickled. The dog's rough, wet tongue ran over his cheek and his nose huffed down by his neck and he laughed again. Can you learn?

"I can learn anything."

Perhaps.

"So teach me."

It isn't about teaching.

Sirius knew that.

"So show me."

Ah, said Padfoot, you will have four legs, that will be stronger than your own two and your hanging arms could ever hope to be.

"Yes," said Sirius, and he felt powerful down to the muscle of him, where blood hid, and rejoiced.

And, continued Padfoot, you will have eyes that will see in the deepest, darkest part of the night, where there is no light at all, only darkness.

"Yes," said Sirius, and he thought he could see the world as a pitch black scale, lit only by a firefly or two in the vast expanse of night.

When, said Padfoot, you have such power, what will you use it for? My power. What will you use it for?

"I told you what I'll use it for," said Sirius, smelling the heavy, dogged scent all around, feeling it seep into his pores so that even mum wouldn't be able to scrub the smell out. "You know what I'll use it for. For him."

Ah, said Padfoot, a pack.

When Sirius woke, or when Sirius fell asleep, he had a tail, bushy and long and enough to make even the largest and proudest of wolfhounds jealous.