Sirius had no idea where he was or even how long he'd been out of Azkaban. Who was he kidding? He barely had an idea of how long he'd been in Azkaban. He was hungry, covered in prison filth, and on the verge of desperate. So it probably should have seemed strange to see his brother sitting under a tree and reading, but at the moment all he could feel was relief.

"Regulus!" He tried to say, but all that came out was an excited woof. Right, he was in Animagus form. But Regulus still looked up from his book, his grey eyes wide -

Only for Sirius to see that his eyes weren't grey and it wasn't his brother at all.

"Hello there," the child said gravely. It was a muggle girl, her short hair pulled back – a similar fashion to what his brother used to wear. "Who might you be?"

Sirius's tail drooped, and he buried his nose in his paws. He was going crazy. It should have been expected, him being an Azkaban escapee, after all. At this rate he was never going to find James and Lily's son, much less that darned rat.

"Are you lost?" A tentative hand reached out to him, hesitated, and then began to scratch behind his ears. He whined. "No collar," the girl remarked. "And you're rather dirty. If I had to guess, I'd say you've been wandering for a bit." She set her book aside and rummaged in a bag, pulling out a box and opening it. Sirus's nose twitched at the scent of food and his ears became alert. "Hungry, then?" The girl laughed softly. "I thought so. Hold on a minute, you can have some."

"Miaow-nee," Toshiko said sternly. "This is our new friend. Be nice please." She had her arms full of a shaggy dog and was trying not to trip over the family cat, who was circling curiously. She nudged open the bathroom door with her foot and set the dog into the bathtub. "You're lighter than you look," she told the dog, who was giving her an affronted look at having been picked up like that. "And Kaasan wouldn't like you getting dirt in the house."

"Meow," the cat said.

"Yes, I know," Toshiko answered, rolling up her sleeves and turning on the water. "I'll clean up any mess that results afterwards."

The black dog picked his paws up out of the water and whined at her.

"Just a minute," Toshiko said. "The water will get warmer, I promise."

She pushed him under the spray and began working shampoo into his matted fur. "You'll feel better once you're all clean," she reassured him.

His eyes were intelligent. He seemed to almost understand, and behaved much better than Miaow did when she was put in water. The bath was soon done and after drying the him off, she led the way into the kitchen and opened the Frigidaire. That dog was too skinny.

"Hmm," she said, looking over the options. "We don't have much meat at the moment. And I'm not sure what's off limits for dogs. I think I'll make some eggs. That's good protein." The cat made a noise of disgruntlement and Toshiko turned around to see the dog on the table, wolfing down a breakfast loaf.

"Hey!" She cried. "Get off of there!" The dog guiltily hopped to the floor, tail between his legs. Toshiko softened. "Oh I know you were just hungry, but you have to wait."

She turned on the burner and cracked the eggs into the pan. Soon, she set a plate on the floor for him to eat off of and scooped up Miaow, who was eyeing the food. The dog ate eagerly, licking the plate when no more remained.

"What should I name you?" Toshiko asked suddenly. The dog looked up. Toshiko frowned and considered him. "You're not an inuguri, are you? A dog spirit coming to possess me or kill me?"

The dog woofed, offended.

Toshiko laughed. "Sorry, just making sure." She knelt down and took his face in her hands, looking him over. "Hmm, how about Kuro? That means black in Japanese, the same color as your fur. It's part of my family name, you know, Kuroki. As long as Mama and Papa agree, you can be part of the family."

Thing were foreign in the Kuroki household, not only the Japanese origin of its inhabitants and the mannerisms and food that came with it, but also the muggleness of their life. They cooked and cleaned without magic and watched muggle news on their television. As a result of culture perhaps, the girl was treated as a little adult with her own responsibilities, trusted to go out on errands and return with the correct amount of pocket change. Often, conversations were carried in an entirely different language.

But Sirius was glad to spend some time recovering there. The mother, for all of her strictness, frequently slipped him fish and other tasty morsels under the table. The father took him on long runs in the morning and talked to him in the garden. The silly cat was always there to mess with. For the most part, though, he hung around Toshiko.

Toshiko was an interesting girl. In the mornings, she practiced strange martial arts movements. She had her share of chores around the house and did them diligently with little complaints. She went on bike rides and came back with wildflowers to press. She read large tomes and seemed to understand them, quite like Regulus. And, of course, she was a witch. This had come as a surprise and with no small amount of alarm to Sirius. However, he quickly came to understand the situation as she received letters by owl from her school mates and read them softly out loud. Toshiko was a muggleborn who attended Hogwarts. With this revelation came a renewed determination to find that blasted rat and be there to protect the Prongslet. All he had to do was convince the Kuroki into taking him with her to Hogwarts. And as she happened to be a Slytherin, Sirius would have to personally see to it that she wouldn't go bad like his brother.