Chapter Six
The next morning, Cas was awakened by the sound of a bird outside her window. She turned and looked with sleepy eyes and noticed that her Daily Prophet had been delivered via owl post. She opened her window and put some money into the owl's pouch and took the paper. She almost dropped it immediately. On the front page was a picture of a menacing looking man whose hard features couldn't mask the carefree boy she knew as Sirius Black. "He's escaped!" she muttered breathlessly. He had escaped from Azkaban, managing to thwart the Dementors who guarded it. Cas couldn't imagine how anyone could escape from there. She often had to go there to deliver prisoners or to further interrogate the Death Eaters within. In fact, her cottage's lake was connected to the waterways which surrounded Azkaban. Once in a blue moon she'd spot a Dementor floating over the water. She shivered at the memory. Cas wasn't afraid of many things but Dementors scared her. They would always hover around her when she was questioning an inmate, just itching to suck her soul out. In her NEWT level of studies at Hogwarts she studied diligently to master the Patronus charm which would keep Dementors away. Her Patronus took the form of an owl, of all things. Funny, because that's the animal she turned into when she transformed. With special permission from the Ministry, Cas was an unregistered Animagus. If she had registered, it would be too easy for the enemy to detect her. She often disguised herself as an owl to deliver mail to suspected Death Eaters. It definitely helped her in her work as an Auror. She often wished that her Patronus would take the form of a lion or something bigger, but she never failed to ward off the Dementors.
Snuffles stood up and sniffed the newspaper. He took it out of her hand and ran away with it. "Hey! I'm not done with that!" Cas yelled after him as he ran a corner into the kitchen. She followed behind him and meant to grab it from him but it was too late. He placed the newspaper into the fireplace where embers continued to burn from the night before. They re-ignited and the flames and swallowed the paper. Snuffles looked up at Casalameer innocently. "Why did you do that, Snuffles?" She asked. What a weird dog. "I wasn't finished reading that." He trotted over to her and jumped up, placing his huge paws on her tummy. "You're just full of mischief, aren't you?" she asked him, not capable of staying angry at such a cute dog. She grabbed his paws and started trying to dance with him playfully. He barked after a while, apparently not a fan of dancing on his hind legs. She let him down. "I need some time to think, Snuffles. Let's go outside." She found her wand on her nightstand and then went outside through the front door, Snuffles bolting out the door before she could even smell the air. He ran around the yard, rolled in the half dead flower garden, chased bumblebees and barked at squirrels. Cas sat in front of the lake on a stone. She watched Snuffles get his hyper kicks for a while and then stared pensively at the water.
She held her wand in front of her. This tool was more than a weapon for her. It was also a diary. She didn't want a pensieve in case the wrong person got a hold of her memories. Her wand was controlled only by her and she knew the one spell (which she had invented) to which she could talk and playback her innermost thoughts. "Dissero privatus" she muttered. Snuffles seemed tired out and came to lie next to her. She didn't mind this as he wouldn't understand any of it anyway. "Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban yesterday. I really don't know what to think…on one hand I'm scared because the Dementors will be everywhere. On the other, I feel so confused. I don't know. I mean, I have a hard enough time believing it was him in the first place. And not because I loved him." Snuffles looked up at her. "When I offered myself as Secret Keeper to James and Lily, they told me they'd never choose me because I'd be an obvious choice and also because I'm Harry's godmother. So it doesn't make sense. Sirius was James' best friend AND Harry's godfather. So why on earth would they choose him over me? He was just as important to them, if not more."
Snuffles came closer to Cas and put his head on her knee. She absently scratched his ears. "But…I still don't understand why he killed Peter. What did he have to do with anything? I heard he'd confronted Sirius but I think that's just a bunch of rubbish. Peter never did anything of the sort. Sure, he may have been angry but he wouldn't dare yell at Sirius. I remember when Sirius called him a sucky follower, Peter sulked for days. Anyone else would have clocked him. No…Sirius wasn't the Secret Keeper. He couldn't have been. If I were Lily and James I would have chosen someone like Peter…" She paused, thinking things over. "What if they did choose Peter? What if Sirius wasn't the one who told and he killed Peter out of anger?" Snuffles began licking Cas' hand. "Subsisto compello" Cas muttered. Her wand stopped recording her words. She turned to Snuffles and patted him on the head. "It's a terrible world sometimes, Snuff" she said and walked him into the cottage.