XXXVI

"The Seize and Pull Charm is a very convenient form of magic," Professor Flitwick chirped at the front of the class. He pointed at an old great tome standing on a table below the window. "Now, watch closely. Carpe Retractum!"

The next moment, Flitwick held the big tome in his hand, waving it in front of the class, before putting it on his desk.

"With this charm, you can seize any object in your vicinity and pull it closer to you. As demonstrated, the incantation is Carpe Retractum. Say it with me!" He rolled the R a bit.

After they had sufficiently practiced pronunciation and wand movement, Professor Flitwick asked them to train on simple objects. Feathers, sticks, sheets of paper. Harry chose a small piece of parchment, that he put on the windowsill on the other side of the room. It didn't work. The parchment didn't even move with his attempt at the charm.

"Harry, it's Carpe, not Carpey!"

Harry glared at Hermione. He was certain he had done it right, but if Hermione thought she knew it better… Harry had spent enough time with her, to know she was probably right.

"Carpe Retractum!" He tried again, this time focusing on the right pronunciation, but it still didn't work. Obviously, that wasn't the problem. "Any other ideas?"

"Hm." Hermione scowled at the parchment he had chosen. "Maybe try to picture it more clearly?"

Harry huffed. Pulling something close… That was easy to picture. He didn't think that was the issue. "You try."

Hermione's lips pinched in concentration, then she flicked her wand, and pointed it at her quill. "Carpe Retractum!" Orange light shot from her wand, but instead of wrapping around her quill it lashed out and grabbed Ron's textbook.

"Hey!" Ron exclaimed, snatching his book out of Hermione's hands. "I was just about to try!"

Hermione looked sheepish, that her spell had sprayed like that, wildly missing the target. Still, it was far better than Harry's attempt.

"Very nice!" Flitwick chirped ecstatically clapping his hands. "Excellent! Truly, and on your first attempt no less."

Hermione blushed with both embarrassment and pride. "Thank—" But as she lifted her head to look at Professor Flitwick, her voice died, and her eyes widened. Her cheeks flushed in an even brighter red then.

Confused, Harry locked up too. To his surprise, Professor Flitwick wasn't talking to Hermione. Instead, he had climbed from his stack of books and now stood on his toes to peek at Charlie's desk. Charlie easily held the inkpot in his hand, setting it down for Flitwick to inspect.

"Very nice, indeed. Do you want to try something heavier?" Flitwick indicated the big tome still resting on his own desk.

A flick of the wand, a quick incantation, and the tome sailed into Charlie's hand. It would've hit Hannah Abbott in the back of the head, but just before it did, it made a sudden upward curve and avoided the collision. Charlie still caught it easily, completely unperturbed by the almost crash.

"Oh dear." Flitwick looked startled. He'd been about to yell out a warning before the tome evaded Hanna's head. "Impressive!"

"Wow." When Harry turned back to Hermione, he could see her openly gape at Charlie. "How's he so quick?"

"It's his best subject," Harry replied just as Charlie gave the tome back to Flitwick.

Professor Flitwick clapped cheerfully. "Magnificent.

Charms truly was Charlie's best subject. Harry had noticed that already during their first class together. He was horrible in Transfiguration. Harry didn't even know why. Most of their class was theoretical and Charlie did just fine with that. But whenever it got to the practical, Charlie just eyed McGonagall and then fumbled it completely. It was odd. Hermione insisted he did both wand movement and even the incantation correctly. And yet…It was as if Professor McGonagall intimidated him. His lacking performance in Transfiguration clearly wasn't for lack of magical talent. In Professor Flitwick's Charms classes, he was already outdoing even Hermione.

"I don't get it," grumbled Hermione, pointing her wand at her quill in frustration. "Carpe Retructum!" But in her jealousy, she mispronounced the last part, even Harry could hear that. Her quill on the windowsill went up in angry orange flames. Lavender Brown snickered gleefully.

NOW!

Sirius pounced on his prey. He immediately bit its neck. The squirrel was so small, Sirius almost snapped it in half with just this one bite. When he withdrew to get a clear look at it, he was disappointed by its small size. There would barely be any meet there. Most of it was fur. And some of that fur was already stuck between his fangs. It almost wasn't worth the energy he had wasted to hunt it down. And still…he was getting better. It felt like process.

Snatching the dead squirrel up with his snout, he quickly tried to find a more secluded spot, where he could safely turn.

As soon as he was well out of sight of any street or hiking path, Sirius turned, feeling paranoid. He used his fingers and nails to rip the animal open, so he didn't need to eat all the fur. For a moment, he contemplated making a fire to cook what little meat he had before he decided it was too risky. Hopefully, his animagus form could deal with raw meat. It wasn't the first time, he'd eat raw meat, but it always felt a bit risky. He turned back to the dog, and ate the small squirrel, leaving only fur and bones. For the next few hours, he was resolved not to turn back to human form again, until the squirrel was well and truly through his digestive system. It wouldn't be the first time, he'd get sick from what he ate, but he'd made the experience that his dog form was much less picky about his food source. It was also easier to smell out stuff he just shouldn't eat. Period.

Having eaten, Sirius tried to orient himself. He should be close to Scotland now. Hogwarts was well to the north so even in Scotland, he'd still have a long march ahead of him, but it was still something to celebrate. He remembered starting in London and thinking his whole journey impossible. Now he was already halfway there. The anticipation was truly frightening. The closer he got to Hogwarts the more he tried to distract himself from what would await him there.

He'd have to kill Peter. It had been the driving goal to push him forward for the last few weeks, and yet, the closer he came the more he almost doubted his goal. How would he even do that? He didn't even have a wand… And then?

Could he do it?

Recently he kept remembering their past together. For years, when he thought about Peter, the first image in his mind would be that of the rat animagus accusing him after the Potters' murder. Those short minutes that had changed Sirius's life so completely, before Peter blew the whole street up, and escaped to leave Sirius to take the blame… Those memories had been a constant companion during his years in Azkaban. But those weren't the memories he was recalling now.

Instead, more and more he remembered their time in Hogwarts. The moons they spent together, roaming the school grounds. Going to classes together, cheering James on during Quidditch matches, practicing to becoming animagi.

Those memories should make him even angrier, he reasoned, they should only strengthen his resolve to kill Peter. How could Peter betray them after all of that? But oddly, instead of making him more eager to avenge James and Lily, they just planted doubt in Sirius. He tried to shove it away, but it would never quite leave. Instead, it lingered. Not enough to make him turn back – there was no turning back! – but enough to make him dread whatever was to come.

He would kill Peter, he was certain. He didn't know how yet, but he would.

And then… Would he be able to live with himself?

But it was a futile thought experiment… There would be no after. Sirius had no plan for after.

"How about you, Charlie?"

Distractedly, Kakashi looked at his classmates. "What are you talking about?" he asked only mildly interested. He'd spent most of the dinner watching Snape for signs that he had found something out regarding Kakashi's clone, but the Potion's master kept quiet about it. He had yet to even acknowledge Kakashi this dinner, which was odd. During the last few days, he had made it a habit to glare at Kakashi at least once. Was this a new strategy? If so, Kakashi preferred Snape being openly vile about his dislike for Kakashi. It made the man more predictable.

"The try-outs." Justin waved at Kakashi who was still clearly focused elsewhere. "Come on, man! We've been talking about it all day."

"Ah right, good luck."

Justin sighed. "Ernie…Ernie is participating not me." He pointed at their blond classmate sitting opposite them. Ernie grinned at them.

Truthfully, Kakashi didn't understand what the fuzz was about. It was just a game after all. And there was only one free position on the team.

"Good luck, Ernie," Kakashi winked at the blond boy and turned back to watch Snape.

Ernie laughed. "Thanks, but I wanted to know if you want to take part too. It'll be fun, I bet. And you seem to be in good shape."

"Good shape?" Kakashi asked in a lazy drawl.

"You're fast," Susan added with a broad grin. "Not that we saw much about it, but the way you zipped out of Defense Against the Dark Arts on Monday."

Kakashi sighed. He pulled a bowl of fruit closer and plucked a twig of grapes from a big vine. "I'm not that fast." He shook his head. "And I'm afraid of heights." He had touched a broom exactly once when Harry wanted him to see his Nimbus 2000 and Kakashi was reasonably certain the thing wouldn't have carried him.

"Ah, bummer," Justin whined. "It would've been so cool."

Once more, Kakashi wondered what the fuss was about, however before he could decide if it was an important enough question to ask, noise broke out from the Gryffindor table.

"Get your beast on a leash!"

"Crookshanks!"

"Damn, Hermione! I told you—" Ron's voice yelled out over the general chatter of the dining students. "Merlin and Morgana! Your stupid cat bit me."

The feet of the long Gryffindor table scraped over the stone floor when Ron jumped up immediately, and Ron made to climb after the rat and the orange cat. One of the twins pulled him back down.

"Don't step in our food!"

"Her cat already did that!" Ron tried to shrug them off. "Scabbers! Come back here!"

"Ron, they're just playing!" Hermione yelled in a shrill voice. "Calm down!"

"He's trying to kill him!"

A few Gryffindors jumped from their benches further down the table, then Kakashi could see a rat zap between the teenagers, and the fat orange cat leaping after it. Crookshanks knocked over several cups and a basket of bread before he gracelessly plowed through a jar of jam heavily landing on the floor after Scabbers.

Hermione and Ron had stopped fighting. While Hermione chose to run around the table, Ron clumsily ducked under it and hurried after the rat and cat on all fourth. They were both much too slow to catch up to the two animals. The whole Great Hall was laughing at their antics.

Scabbers ran in panic away from Crookshanks. Despite what Hermione was saying, Kakashi could smell both Scabbers' fear as well as Crookshanks's killing intent. And then they flitted under the Ravenclaw table, Scabbers only barely evading Crookshanks' claws before they leaped for the Hufflepuff table.

Kakashi snatched Scabbers up in his left hand, before catching Crookshanks with his right and brazing the impact against his hip.

"Oof!" Crookshanks wasn't particularly heavy or strong, but he still huffed at the impact if only to keep up pretense.

"Thank Merlin, Charlie!" Ron exclaimed, reaching them just before Hermione did. "That beast!" He glared at Crookshanks, then reached out to take Scabbers from Kakashi. "Thanks a lot."

Scabbers' pulse had quickly gone down after Kakashi caught both him and the tomcat. Kakashi lifted the rat up, just far enough from his hip, that Crookshanks couldn't swipe at it. He had never held Scabbers before. Up close he could see the sickly thin fur and the toe missing from its front paw. It looked like any other rat. It smelled like any other rat too. Nothing human about it, apart from that faint scent that might come from spending so much time with Ron.

"Here." He handed Ron his rat. By then Hermione had arrived too, so he gave her the cat and sat back on the Hufflepuff table.

"See!" Susan said as soon as he sat. "I said you were fast!"

Ernie nodded. "Bet you'd be a great Chaser."

Kakashi didn't try to argue why 'catching a rat' wasn't really qualification enough to be a Chaser. He couldn't really explain to them, why he couldn't fly a broom, after all. And what was a Chaser anyway?

Sirius avoided the bigger settlements. But he started missing people. It had been a month since he had last talked to Kakashi. Somehow, he had spent years in total isolation locked in a tiny cell and it had seemed almost bearable. Yet now, that he was free to run where he wanted, every minute alone seemed like torture. He hated being alone. He hated waking up alone, walking alone, sleeping alone. Sometimes he woke up, and for a moment – for just the fraction of a second he could imagine that he was with his fellow marauders, with the order, with Kakashi again… But then it was just him alone somewhere in Northumberland.

He hated the place. In the South it had been better, he thought. He had tried to avoid the big settlements, but there were always people somewhere. This place was deserted. To avoid Newcastle he had oriented himself further away from the sea… And now it was just him, the endless hills, a few castles, and sheep… Bloody sheep!

The roads were empty, the paths were empty, even the bloody huts and barns he came across were empty most of the time. Like some Muggle had just planted them into the endless nothing and then deserted it there. He knew he should be thankful. If there were no people to avoid, he would be reasonably safe. He knew that, and still, it just left him frustrated.

He hated being alone. And the mere thought, that he could go a few hours back Northeast, and he'd be in Newcastle or even a smaller town along the road, and he could be among people again… He could just live among them, unseen. Nobody would care. Most people seemed at least somewhat tolerant of stray dogs as long as they stayed a reasonable distance away from them. He could live among people. It just needed a bit of courage…

But he knew it was too risky. Sirius was generally a reckless person, but this whole task was already horribly reckless. He shouldn't add any further risk just out of stupidity and a general need to be close to people.

So, he stayed away from the towns and even made circles around many of the smaller settlements that just consisted of a few houses and barns. Villages so small, he wondered if anybody even bothered to name them yet.

Evening came surprisingly quickly. Sirius trudged across a huge meadow. He could smell sheep peacefully grazing a bit further away, but he tried to keep his distance. He had no interest in meeting the shepherd dog and having to fight his way through if he could just as easily go around it.

Sometimes he wished, turning into a dog gave him the ability to communicate with dogs, but that skill was rather limited. At best, he could exchange basic thoughts and moods. Which meant, when he met other dogs – especially those charged with protecting their territory or herd, he couldn't bark his way out of the situation. Growling, fighting, and asserting dominance was all he could do.

There was a sudden scream, the pulled him out of his thought. It wasn't far away, but he couldn't see the person behind the crest of the nearest hill. A moment later, he saw a dark shadow leap across the meadow. It was far enough away from Sirius, that he was reasonably certain the dog hadn't noticed him yet and was instead racing for the screaming person.

Sirius looked in the direction of the noise. He should get away, he thought, before he was noticed too – he really didn't fancy a Dog fight in his condition. He'd enjoyed a good bout in his youth, but if he was hurt now, he'd have no way to treat that. So, he was about to run in the opposite direction away from the noise and the other dog, down the gravel path, when the human cried out again. This time louder. It was clearly a child. He didn't understand any words, but the sounds were filled with both panic and pain. There was a second voice, weaker than the child's and a bit throaty. None of this concerned him, Sirius thought.

"Waah!" The child wailed so loudly Sirius stopped in his tracks to turn around. The dog was barking. It wouldn't attack a child, would it? "Go away! AH!"

The other voice got louder too, but it was still so hoarse, almost whispery, that Sirius didn't understand a word. An old person's voice, he was sure.

Now worried, he turned and raced after the yelling and incessant barking. They weren't far away, but just behind the crest of the nearest hill. Up on the top, he could look down to the scene below him. There was a small girl. Maybe six years old, lying on the gravel path just next to one of the low stone walls, that would barely reach to her shoulders if she stood. She was wailing loudly, a bleeding knee stretched out in front of her. At the same time, she held her hands defensively against the dog. An elderly woman, grey and frail and leaning heavily on a walking stick half-cowered next to her. She didn't seem afraid of the dog as much as worried about the girl's injury.

The dog hadn't attacked yet. It still stood on the meadow, behind the small wall that separated the meadow from the gravel path. It barked loudly and aggressively but didn't come any closer. The noise seemed to upset it though. Sirius could easily see, why the girl would be afraid. She was barely any taller than the dog, and if it wanted, the dog could leap over the wall and bite her dead in a matter of seconds. It wouldn't do that. Sirius doubted it at least, but the girl was clearly afraid of it.

The grandma didn't make it any better. The child's crying and bleeding worried her, and it didn't help, that the wailing made the dog only more aggressive.

"He's not doing anything," the old woman tried to say, but the child wasn't listening. "Look, he's just confused, why you're so loud." But at that point, the dog made a leap on top of the wall snarling menacingly, and even the granny flinched back, suddenly unsure. The girl in her fright grabbed a pebble, and was about to throw it—

Sirius barked, trying to get the shepherd dog to focus on him. Its ears perked up and it lifted its head, staring at Sirius who was still a bit away, before growling and turning back on the grandmother and girl. The girl screamed suddenly!

"Granny! Granny! It's gonna eat us!" She stared at Sirius and then flinched back from the other dog's growling. "It's gonna… AH!" She fell over backward. Her grandmother tried to catch her, but before she hit her head against the gravel, but almost toppled over herself.

Sirius barked again, ignoring the girl and her grandma, he raced down the hill, closer to the other dog, but keeping a bit of distance for now. He barked and growled until the other dog finally turned away from the couple and snarled at Sirius instead. Sirius snarled back. He rose to his full height. Normally, he slouched a lot in dog form because his shape was huge. Not abnormally so, but quite impressive. Most people were afraid, seeing him at his full height, so he often slouched a bit. Now rising up to his full height, to assert dominance, he barked again. The other dog wasn't small either. Not as big as Sirius, but in his malnourished state, Sirius was almost convinced it weighed more.

It was a proud beast by itself, it seemed. Sirius' full height didn't seem to impress it much. Sirius had to give it to the dog. It knew its job, and it wasn't backing away, protecting what it deemed its territory and herd.

Snarling, Sirius crouched down, before he leaped. The other dog evaded quickly, yelping as it jumped from the wall before Sirius landed just where it had been before. He didn't want a dog fight, so he stuck to the position on the wall, barking and growling menacingly at the dog. The animal barked back, but it looked uncertain. Sirius imagined his almost human scent quite confused the other dog. It yapped and snarled and jumped in an odd pattern as if daring Sirius to make one more step from the wall onto the grass. And then it seemed to come to a sudden decision, jumping at Sirius.

Sirius didn't back away, too worried, the big dog might sail over the wall and land on the child or her grandma. Instead, he took the full brunt of the attack. A paw swiped at his snout and a strong jaw closed around his shoulder. Howling, Sirius and the other dog toppled from the wall, rolling over rough gravel. He didn't just take the attack, though. He swiped back, catching the other dog's rips. Ripping his shoulder free, he pushed it off him with his full force.

This wasn't entirely foreign to him. In his youth, he'd had to fight Remus' werewolf more than once, and Remus had relied on him and James keeping him in check during the full moon. Sometimes that involved a bit of force. Sirius had never been strong enough to defeat the werewolf, but he had been able to fight it off and force it to concede at times. This dog was no match to Remus.

Before it could right itself, Sirius was over his opponent, he growled and snarled threateningly and bit, though he mostly caught dirty yellow fur. Still, the dog whined loudly and exposed its neck. The whole thing was over rather quickly. Sirius snapped his jaw close to the other dog's neck, and then snarled one final time, before leaving it be.

He settled down on his hind paws and glared at the other dog, that scrambled back to its feet eyeing him warily. And then, the dog whined and ran off, back to the sheep. Rolling his shoulder, Sirius looked after it. The bite had mostly been cushioned by his thick fur and hadn't breached the skin, but it would bruise. Disgusted, he noticed, that he still had strands of dry golden fur between his teeth. He wiped his tongue over his fangs but couldn't quite get rid of all of it.

"Is it hurt?" The girl's voice made him aware of the presence of the two people again. She still sounded afraid, but also worried. Sirius had heard her screaming throughout the whole fight, but she had stopped now. It probably helped, that Sirius wasn't barking at her. In truth, he had barely even acknowledged the two humans yet. Now, he turned around, hunched down, and tried to look as unthreatening as possible.

"It's good?" The girl asked.

The elderly woman eyed Sirius warily. Earlier, she was the one who'd been more confident that the shepherd dog wouldn't hurt them. That wasn't much of a surprise. She probably lived in the area, just out on a short walk with her granddaughter, and knew a thing or two about shepherd dogs. The other dog had been well-fed, well-taken care of, and mostly clean. It also wore a dog tag. Sirius didn't have any of that. Despite him not yapping or barking at them, just his appearance would seem more threatening to her. Sirius understood that, though it annoyed him already, as he saw the old woman's wary caution.

The girl had much more sense. Without being barked at, she seemed to forget her fear of dogs and ogled Sirius as if he was the cutest dog she'd ever seen. She still sat on her bum her bleeding leg stretched out in front of her. Sirius assumed she'd fallen off the wall or slipped on a pebble.

"You're so big!" The girl now talked to him directly, reaching with a small hand for his fur.

The old woman caught her arm. "Don't," she warned. At last, she wasn't swiping at him the way the last mother had done to protect her child from the stray mutt. "Be careful."

The girl pouted. "But it saved us." She looked at her grandma, then back at Sirius. "You did, didn't you? You were really brave!" If Sirius were in human form, he would've snorted about how easily impressed this child was. In his dog form, however, only an odd half-bark half-sneeze escaped him, which made the old woman look at him weirdly, and the girl giggle.

"Bless you!" She laughed, and then with one wrist still held back by her grandma, she reached out with her other hand, and Sirius did her the favor and made the step closer to her, so she could bury her hand in his thick shaggy fur.

The girl grimaced in surprise. She had dimples on her cheeks and sparkling blue eyes. "It's not soft!" She whined as if affronted. "It's so course. And dirty! Granny, the doggo's so dirty!" She pulled her hand from his fur, looked at her hand almost in disgust, wiped it at her trousers, and then buried it right back in his fur, dirtying her fingers all over again.

"Caty," the grandmother exclaimed. "Didn't you just say it's dirty?" Now that he was up-close, he assumed, the woman was closing in on seventy. His initial guess that the girl had to be around six still seemed fitting. A messy brown ponytail hung loosely over her back. "You don't know if it's sick."

"No, you're a good dog, aren't you?" She said it as if being a good dog had anything to do with being a sick dog.

The grandma waved some of his fur aside at his neck. "I don't think it has an owner—"

"So, we can keep it!" Caty yelled out excitedly.

"Caty—"

"Please! Please, Granny! I want it!"

The grandmother had already lost. "It's not safe, Caty. We can't just pick up random dogs from the street."

"He's not a random dog!"

"Be careful with him!"

She pulled her other wrist free and hugged Sirius around the neck, not caring about the dirt. "Look how good he is. You're a good doggo! Just a bit dirty."

This was the first time, the grandmother seemed to truly consider something the kid said. "He is oddly well-behaved," she said.

"YES!" As if it had been her agreement, that they could keep Sirius, the girl leaped up happily. "Ouch, ow!" Ass soon as she put weight on her leg, she cried out in pain, and almost fell again, but Sirius quickly moved under her to catch her. "Look!" She laughed a bit teary-eyed from her pain.

Then two hands fisted almost painfully in his fur, as she pulled herself up on his frame. She wouldn't be able to talk with her injury, Sirius thought. The blood wasn't that bad, but the way she'd yelled in pain, she'd maybe injured her ankle or knee. He shifted under her and guided her onto his back. Triumphantly she set up on his shoulders. At six, she was light enough for Sirius to carry.

"Look, Granny! I can ride him!"

Granny seemed baffled at Sirius' behavior. "Well, I guess, we can take him home." She eyed a watch on her wrist. "He looks like he could need a meal."

"And a bath!" The girl chimed in.

Sirius barked in agreement. He could use all that. This would be worth the few bruises on his shoulder.

"And a bath. And tomorrow we can bring him to the veterinarian. Make sure he's healthy, and he's probably still uncastrated."

He almost threw the girl off in shock. The girl yelped when she almost lost her balance.

Well, if he had considered staying around to erst a few days. He'd take the bath and the food, and then he'd be out of there before they'd ever get close to that so-called vegetarian.