Chapter 14 – Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie

Disclaimer: We do not own anything that is recognisable as J. K. Rowling's.

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Sirius sipped at his tea and wiggled his toes inside his worn black socks. "So, what happened to that girl you were seeing?" At Remus look of puzzlement, he continued, "You know. About this tall? Red hair?"

"I know who you mean," Remus sighed.

"Then what happened to her?"

"Nothing, she's still about. Anyway, you're the one with a problem."

"Nicely put," Sirius said wryly. "What do you mean 'she's still about'? Why aren't you jumping her bones as we speak?"

Remus sent him a disgusted look. "Padfoot…"

"Moony…" Sirius mimicked, and then relaxed back in his chair, sending his friend an apologetic grin. "Sorry, I haven't slept for two days and I barely slept well before that. I have been seriously considering a sleeping draught."

Remus raised his eyebrow. "Then maybe you should get this whole thing sorted out so you can get a proper night's sleep."

"Yeah, 'cos that's why I want everything sorted out," Sirius muttered sarcastically. He rubbed a hand over his tired face. "What am I going to do, Remus? What should I say?"

"How about 'Hello, Heather. I love you'," Remus said with a grin.

Sirius frowned. "I don't know why I asked you. You're no help! I must be insane to be asking you advice on how to talk to women, when you're always letting them pass you by."

Remus shrugged nonchalantly, obviously knowing something his friend didn't, but in his distraught state, Sirius didn't notice.

"Anyway," Sirius got up from his chair with a groan, "I should get back to London before Heather starts to worry."

Remus grinned. "Like that, is it?"

Sirius returned the smile, looking a little happier than when he had first set his foot through the door. "It's almost exactly how I want it to be. And it will be better soon enough."

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Sirius lay back on the sofa, glad to finally be back home. He wagged his tail lazily, as he stretched his paws out, and wiggled his ears, trying to determine whether anyone was home. His previous search had proven that no one was, but Heather could be apparating home any minute.

Home. She had only been living with him for a few short weeks and already he couldn't imagine her not being there. She had wormed herself into his life without him noticing and he didn't mind, not one jot.

Heather opened the door to the house slowly, dragging in all her clothes shopping that was to last her the rest of the year. She didn't have enough money to go on a big spending spree, and preferred anyway to shop in the sales. She closed the door firmly behind her and locked it, knowing that Sirius would be in by this time.

He was really giving her cause for concern: one minute he was vying for her kisses and then, the next, he was being almost brotherly towards her. She had hoped that after she had instigated that kiss, they would have become… She shrugged. It would all come out in the wash.

Her feet aching from the walk, she went into the lounge and sat down on the squishy sofa, kicking off her shoes. Setting her bags next to her for her to rummage through while she rested, she lifted her head and froze.

A large black dog was sprawled on the sofa opposite, its tongue hanging out and its pale blue eyes fixed on her in what she would have guessed were shock. And what comes after shock? she asked herself as she began scrabbling as far away from it as possible. Attack.

Fear filled her as she struggled to get off the sofa over the armrest on the other side. She had never liked dogs; whether they were small ones or big ones, it didn't matter. And this one looked as big as a bear.

"Oh, Merlin..." Heather mumbled as her shaking hands tried to find a weapon to defend herself in case it attacked. She grabbed a pillow from the sofa and held it in front of her chest.

"Sirius?" She suddenly remembered he was at home and whispered his name, hoping he would hear it but not wanting to panic the dog into action.

The dog slid off the sofa and stood watching her; its four feet were still, as if it was stuck to the ground. It let out a soft growl and Heather whimpered again, clawing at the wall as if she wanted to disappear into it.

"Sirius!" she shouted and the dog jerked slightly. Thinking that it was getting ready to attack, she tried to placate it with trembling hands. "There, there. It's alright. You don't want me..." she whispered.

Sirius watched her with concern as she moved as far away from him as possible. What's going on? What's the matter with her?

Her heard her mumble something and leaped off the sofa to get closer, wondering what she was saying. It was only until she screamed his name that he realised that she didn't know that he was an animagus – Florence was the only other person except from Remus, James and Peter that had known at school.

Sirius cursed but to Heather it sounded like a low growl and she turned pale.

"Sirius! Please let him be here... Please let him come..." she whispered, tears filling her eyes. "Oh, Merlin..."

Sirius was worried now and tried to stay calm, thinking rationally. If he were to change in front of her, that would give her a nasty shock and he didn't want that, but if he were to remain like this...

Heather was terrified. She couldn't take much more of this; the creature had its mouth open and she could see yellow fangs peeking out, each over an inch long. It was obvious Sirius was not in, so what was she going to do?

The dog let out a quick, worried bark and Heather's eyes rolled back in her head, giving Sirius a chance to transform without her noticing. Quickly, he changed back into human form and took long strides over to her, catching her as she keeled over.

He carried her over to the sofa and looked at her in concern. What had made her so afraid of him? Usually people were surprised to see him but got over it in seconds but she looked like she thought she was going to die.

"Heather?" he whispered softly, trying to make her come to. "Heather? Come on, wake up."

She made a soft moue and her eyelashes fluttered.

"Open your eyes, sweetheart."

"Sirius?" Her eyelids lifted and she looked startled to be in his arms. Then she realised why. "Sirius! The dog!" She tried to crane her neck to look over his shoulder and made to scramble to the corner of the sofa, but he held her down with gentle arms.

"What's that, love?" He decided now was not a good time to tell her that he was the dog that she had been scared of.

Heather would have glowed at the endearment if she hadn't been in such a panic. "The dog... the monstrous dog..."

Sirius winced slightly but she was too absorbed in her own fear that she didn't notice.

"It tried to... eat me!"

"Eat you? I don't think so, sweetheart. Anyway, it's gone now."

"Are you sure?" she asked timidly and Sirius wanted to snuggle her up in his arms so she knew she was safe with him. Giving in to his impulse, he sat down next to her and pulled her onto his lap, ignoring the shocked expression on her face. He smoothed his hand down her back, trying to make her at ease and, sure enough, she relaxed into his embrace, her head tucking neatly under his chin.

"I'm glad you were here. I was so scared..." She whimpered again with the memory and he placed a finger under her chin, making her look into his eyes.

"Hey! You're safe now." He gave her a quick kiss on her lips but, far from making her relax again, it made her eyes widen.

"Sirius..."

He placed a finger on the lips that he had just kissed. "Ssshhh... Are you alright to move?"

She nodded and began to get off his lap but he stopped her, lifting her up in his arms and heading towards the stairs.

"Sirius? What are you doing? I can walk..."

He gave her a quick grin and kept carrying her, up the stairs and into her bedroom. He set her gently onto her bed and let her go, looking down at her.

"Sirius? Are you alright?"

"Why are you scared of dogs?" he asked, ignoring her first question.

Heather sat up and gave him an innocent look. "Who said I was?"

"I don't think you would have fainted if you weren't," he commented indulgently.

Heather pursed her lips together and frowned. "Who said I fainted because of the dog? I could have had nothing to eat; I could have been under stress... I could be pregnant!" she answered triumphantly and Sirius paled slightly.

"And are you?" If she were pregnant with Leggett's child, it would be more than he could bear.

"Err..." Heather was confused by the troubled look on his face. What did it matter to him if she was going to have a baby? "I don't think so. I wasn't last time I checked."

"Then, why are you scared of dogs?"

Heather sighed. "Do we have to talk about this? I'm tired..."

Sirius looked immediately contrite. "I'm sorry, my love. I didn't mean to bother you. I'll leave you alone." He headed towards the door.

"Sirius? Why did you call me your love?" Heather was sat on the bed looking at him questioningly and he could barely stop himself from going to her and wiping the anxious lines off of her face. It was this impulse that worried him. If she was indeed as enamoured with Leggett as he thought, then it probably wouldn't be a good thing for him to confess his feelings. He frowned.

"It's just a saying..." He turned his back on her and walked out the door, not willing to admit to her that it was far more than that and worried that, if he stayed any longer, he wouldn't be able to hold back.

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Heather slid off of the bed and moved towards the fireplace. She had to tell Florence what had happened – maybe she could shed light on the reason why the dog had been in the house.

Within moments, Florence was smiling up at her.

"Florence, I just had the most awful experience," Heather sighed and her friend looked at her in concern.

"Why? What happened? Are you ok?" Florence asked anxiously.

"Yeah, I'm ok now," she smiled. "I had just got back from shopping – muggle shopping that is. Muggle money is so difficult! Anyway, I had just got home and sat down and I looked up and there was a huge, bear-like dog lying on the sofa opposite. It had black fur… looked just like a Grim! I don't know how I didn't notice it when I first came in." Heather shrugged. "And, you know how terrified I am of dogs, I sort of freaked out. It came towards me like it was going to eat me or something! It was terrible! Well, I must have fainted but, when I woke up, it was gone and Sirius was there. He must have taken care of it for me… What a nice man." Heather smiled dreamily but her eyes narrowed when she saw the frown on Florence's face. "What?"

"That dog sounded just like…" she stopped, shaking her head.

"What? Sounded like what? Is it a pet of someone you know?" Heather asked eagerly.

"It sounded like Sirius."

"Sirius? Sirius is a man not a dog! What on earth are you talking about?"

Florence's eyes widened. "Of course… You don't know."

"Know what?" Heather was getting slightly impatient with her friend's ambiguity.

"Remus is a werewolf."

"Remus is a what?! He's a werewolf?!" Heather bit her lip. "So, that's where he went every month; I've always wondered… What does this have to do with the dog? That wasn't Remus was it? No… it was daylight."

"Remus was a werewolf, so James, Sirius and Peter became animagi to keep him company," Florence explained.

"Animagi? Sirius is an animagi? Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I was sworn to secrecy. I'm sorry, Heather, but I couldn't have told you."

Heather bit her lip. "That's ok. But why didn't Sirius tell me?" Something seemed to click into place in her mind. "Don't tell me Sirius became a dog?" she grated in an ominous tone.

"Mmm…" Florence said worriedly, "James was a stag, Peter was a rat and… and Sirius was a dog. Your description reminded me of him. Did it have pale eyes, too?"

"Now, that you mention it… I'm going to kill him!"

"Heather…" Florence began worriedly.

"Nope. There's no stopping me. He just sat there and… he must have known he was scaring me, but he just sat there. And then he pretended that he had sent the thing away and had saved me. Oh!" Heather pursed her lips angrily. "He's definitely going to get it."

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Authors' Notes:

Hiya!

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! I love you all and your support really brightens my day! Especially when I am in a particularly boring lecture and am on the Internet to stop me from going to sleep and I found that I have a new review! It's the best feeling!

Special Thanks to:

Hopeful Writer: Sorry about pissing you off! I just seem to have a habit of ending chapters on cliff-hangers. I think it's a disease… ;-)

Drachenaugen: Sorry you've been having trouble with your friend. I've had days like that. I love Remus too – he's my second favourite character also. I bet you can guess who's my favourite!

Sapphireskies: Yeah, Florence is awesome. Have you read Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night? That's her story. Admittedly, it is long, but I hope it is worth it. I feel quite sorry for Bran too! He's really had a rough time of it!

The Elfin Child: Don't worry about the story being at an end when Heather and Sirius get together, because Martha and I are considering writing a sequel to all our stories put together. You'll see them again! But no worries, there are at least five more chapters before the story ends, I think!

Honor Blaze Pendragon: You make me blush! I'm glad you like the story that much! It gives me a warm, squishy feeling inside.

caytebelle: Thanks for your support! I think Bran is going to go into hiding for a little while!

Cate O'Hara: Wow! Four reviews in two days! I can't believe you read the whole story at once! That's amazing! Thank you so much.

Please keep on reading.

Love,

(Martha and) Squirrel. xxx.