Hello, hello! Chapter three for all of you! Wow, almost a dozen reviews! My goal is...hmm...thirty for the entire story. That sounds good. (grins) Am I being too optimistic? (Update: Obviously not. Wow, 28 reviews and only three chapters! I love you guys!)
Much thanks to IamSiriusgrl for her name suggestions; I'll think you'll find two of them have been used! (Update: Well, I changed one, sorry... It's still your suggestion, though!)
Oh, another relationship note for all of you: I really hate OCs, and am sorry to have to include them in this story. I promise you there will be no relationships between any Potterians and my OCs. Although a few OCs might have crushes on certain boys, those feeling will go unrequited. So haha to them.
The Origins of Snuffles
Chapter Three: Snuffles Bathes, To His Chagrin
It was mid-afternoon before Professor McGonagall strode into the common room, looking abnormally severe. "Where is Miss Evans?" she asked a group of chatting fifth years. The girls told her that Lily Evans was still up in her room.
When McGonagall entered the dorm, the girls inside were fussing over an enormous black dog. Pursing her lips, she coughed to get their attention. Catching sight of the stern-looking woman, Sirius's hopes for escape rose and he began wagging his tail.
Yelping in surprise, Lily was the first to react. "P-professor! Oh, please Professor, can't we keep him? He's such a sweet dog, and he's housebroken, and he won't bark at night or anything! I found him on the grounds this morning, and he was cold and hungry and wet. He doesn't have any home, can't we keep him pleeease?" she gushed.
Sirius could've snickered (assuming dogs can snicker). "No go, Evans. McGonagalls's a cat sort of person, everyone knows that."
McGonagall was silent for a long moment. "If I hear one negative thing about that dog, Miss Evans, I'm throwing it out of the castle immediately. And taking fifty points from Gryffindor," she said tersely.
"Thank you, Professor! He'll be good, really!" Lily cried, throwing her arms around Sirius's neck. The dog's jaw hung slack.
"Professor, how could you? At least make her take the collar off!"
Sirius spent the rest of the evening moping. He'd had his fur brushed eight times, people kept trying to slip him food, and he'd even been taken for several walks outside. He'd never felt more like a...well, a dog. Sighing, he curled up on the rug on the floor. How long was he going to have to stay like this? He didn't even look up as the girls around him changed into their sleepwear. Finally, as everyone was getting into bed, Lily called to him.
Ambling over to her bed, he sniffed at her outstretched hand. He was bored, and figured he might as well appease her. Lily laughed. "C'mon up here, Snuffles." She giggled as Sirius leapt up onto her bed. She patted a spot on the bed next to her. Curious, Padfoot sat there. Suddenly, she pulled him down into lying position. "You can sleep in my bed tonight, boy," she murmured, hugging his large form close.
"Nooo! Lemme go! I don't wanna!"
Eyes wide, Sirius struggled mightily against the arms encircling him. He knew this was going to get back to James somehow, and he really didn't want to see the expression on his friend's face when he found out that Padfoot had shared a bed with Lily Evans, even if Sirius was currently a dog.
Some of the other girls expressed their jealousy towards Lily. "Aww, I want Snuffles to sleep with me!"
"No!"
"Yeah, I get him tomorrow!"
"Forget it!"
"I'd feel so much safer if he'd sleep in my bed."
"If only you knew what you're saying..."
Poor Sirius spent a completely miserable night wrapped in the warm, secure embrace of Lily Evans. Sure, it was comfortable and soft. But that was exactly the problem! There was no way on earth Sirius was gonna fall asleep nestled in the arms of the girl that his best mate had loved since first year. It was disloyal (and a little scary). So he resorted to staring out the window, begging dawn to come faster. His eyelids started to droop...
---
When Lily awoke, she grinned. Snuffles was curled into a ball by her side, fast asleep. Looking across the room, she hissed, "Anne! Anne, wake up!"
The girl known as Anne Risdon grumbled for a moment before sitting up. Her silky mouse-brown hair was rumpled, and she looked distinctly unhappy at being up so early. "What do you want, Lil? I was sleeping..." she muttered.
"It's almost five thirty. We've got class today, remember? I want to take a bath before breakfast; I smell like dog."
"Fine, fine. You wanna give Snuffles a bath, too?"
"Sounds good to me. We'll just take him with us, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem. We could wash him in one of the individual bathtubs. Hey, Erin, Riley, Maddie! Up and at 'em, ladies!"
Groaning, Erin O'Riordan, Riley Giffin, and Madison Bruce all shifted in their beds. Lily put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. Shrieking, the other three shot up suddenly. Sirius nearly brained himself falling off of Lily's bed.
"Wha...? What's going on?"
"We're all getting up early for baths. We'll be washing Snuffles as well."
"We'll be WHAT?"
The girls suddenly looked excited. Erin, the girl with blonde frizzy hair, exclaimed in a heavy Irish brogue, "I'll go get my bath things!"
Within minutes, each girl had a basket of soaps and shampoos under her arm and a robe over her shoulder. Lily clipped a short leash onto Sirius's collar and led him down to the common room. At the door leading to the girls' baths, Riley turned to Lily. "Are you going down to the Prefects' baths?"
Lily grinned. "No. I'll bathe with you underprivileged souls today."
"Gee, thanks."
---
Though Sirius had tried valiantly to keep away, the girls dragged him across the tiled floor of the bathing room anyway. They reached a largish stone tub and wheedled him into it, then began to fill it with lukewarm water. Growling irritably, Sirius felt them rubbing shampoo into his fur. It smelled like...something fruity. Uck.
Lily clucked her tongue, then unsnapped the red collar so she could wash under it. Padfoot saw his chance to escape. He tried to leap out of the bath, unaware of just how doglike he was acting.
"Oh! Snuffles!" Lily cried. He'd splashed sudsy water all over her nightshirt. Shrugging, she slipped it off. The act arrested Sirius. There was Prongs's future wife (according to James, at any rate) in nothing more than her undergarments. It was a few moments before Sirius resumed his struggle, more frantic than ever.
"He'll kill me. I'm as good as dead..."
Laughing, the girls held Sirius in the tub and finished scrubbing his fur. Anne began dumping buckets of warm water over him, attempting to rinse the soap from his coat. Finally, somebody pulled the stopper out, and the few inches of water in the tub drained away. Before Sirius could make a break for freedom, he was covered in fluffy white towels. The girls were patting him dry.
Finally, the white cottony mass lifted. Lily smiled and snapped the collar back on. "There we go, all clean! Now don't you feel better, Snuffles?"
"I hate you."
Lily clipped the leash back onto the collar and tied one end to a mounted towel rack. She ruffled the fur on Sirius's head and scratched his ears lovingly. "Now, you be good until we've finished our baths, all right? Then we'll go down to breakfast."
Sirius's eyes became as wide as saucers as the girls around him undressed and stepped into their respective baths. It was something all the boys had dreamed of, watching this now (with the possible exception of Remus, but no one was that much of a prude, Sirius reasoned). Under different circumstances, perhaps with Prongs by his side and both under the Invisibility Cloak, this would've been one experience they'd talk about for years. As it was, Padfoot was trying desperately to think of anything besides the naked girls surrounding him, especially Lily, who was the closest to him. And it just got worse; the later the morning got, the more girls wandered into the baths. Sirius was nearly hyperventilating by the time all five girls were finished and robed.
Sirius kept his eyes firmly planted on the back of Erin's green, white, and orange robe, reading the words COUNTY CORK over and over again, as girls of all years and stages of undress came over to pat him and remark on how lovely he smelled. Finally, when they left the bath room, Sirius let out a shuddering sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, neither he nor the robe-clad girls had considered that some boys might be up at this hour (that the Marauders might be up at this hour, to be exact). James, Remus, and Peter were sitting close together, their heads bent. Peter looked over his shoulder and squeaked in surprise, pointing the approaching group out to the other two.
Remus's brows knit as he realized what must have happened, but a mischievous light sparkled in his eyes. Peter clapped a hand over his mouth to hide his giggles. James went from a pale white, to red, to white again with such rapidity that it almost seemed like the work of magic. He stood stiffly and walked over to intercept the dog. A deadly light in his eye, he crouched down so his face was level with Sirius's.
"So, Snuffles, had a nice bath?"
Lily raised an eyebrow, obviously perturbed by the boy's odd actions. Erin, who was James's fellow Chaser on Gryffindor's Quidditch team, growled, "Potter, what do you think you're doing?"
"Stuff it, O'Riordan," he shot, not looking at her. "I suppose you had a nice bath, too, Evans? Nothing...odd...happen?"
"No, of course not. Why?" Lily asked, eyes narrowing with suspicion.
Sirius glared at James. "Of course nothing odd happened. I'm the charmer, the rough-on-the-edges-but-with-a-heart-of-gold type. Not the twisted pervert, you untrusting git."
"Just the company you bathed with is all. Didn't know you liked having boys watching you," James gritted, glaring daggers into Sirius. The massive dog raised his hackles, growling for all he was worth.
"Oh, yes, because you know I really enjoyed the whole experience!"
Lily finally got the gist of what James was hinting at. "He's a dog, Potter. Sometimes I wonder about you. C'mon, ladies, we've got to change for breakfast." With that, she put her nose in the air and began to stalk off, confused about the exchange but full of righteous indignation nevertheless.
"Wait," Remus called softly. He smiled at the girls. "May I pat your dog? He reminds me so much of one I used to know."
Sensing Riley turning into a useless lovesick puddle beside her, Lily rolled her eyes and sighed. Remus, taking that to be consent, strode over to Sirius and placed one hand on his head. Smiling wickedly, the fair-haired teen said brightly, "Why, he smells lovely! Is that white plum?" Sirius had a sudden urge to bite Remus's face off.
Riley gushed, "It is! It's one of my shampoos!"
Remus nodded sagely. "I thought so. Well, have a good day, Miss Evans, Miss Giffin. Oh, and by the way, that collar looks a bit tight. Maybe you should adjust it later?" He inclined his head, then returned to his seat.
The three human Marauders watched the girls ascend their staircase, then James turned to Remus, incredulous. "How d'you do that?" he breathed, temporarily forgetting about Sirius.
"Do what?"
"Talk to the girls like that. All smooth and calm, like you're not interested in anything but what you're talking about at that moment. That Giffin girl was practically drooling over you!"
Remus's lips curled. "It's a gift, I suppose. A gift that comes in very useful when I choose to apply it."
Peter was also looking at Remus in awe, but his expression was slightly different, more like a sick curiosity. "How'd you know what scent that shampoo was? It wasn't the normal wildflower or cucumber melon scents girls use, those are recognizable even if you aren't familiar with beauty products..."
To this the quiet teen merely quirked an eyebrow in a way that feigned innocence, avoiding Peter's look.
Suddenly, James remembered what Sirius had been doing for the past forty-five minutes. "I'LL KILL HIM, THE DIRTY CREEP!" The others winced. It was going to be a long morning.
Taadaa! Chapter three for you! Sorry for the wait.