Chapter 9 A Relieving Surprise

That night I was laying in bed with window open. Hedwig and Barnabas were flying in every few minutes, chasing each other and I thought it was cute. I was skimming through The Standard Book of Spells, just getting a look at what we were going to be learning in Charms, when there were two loud barks in the street.

I turned my head sharply to the window and waited a few more moments. There was a growl and another two barks. The grin was painful as it formed and I ran out of my room and down the stairs.

Tom looked up in alarm when he heard my feet on the stairs but he grinned back when he saw me.

"Is he back?" Tom asked.

"I think so." I answered as I opened the door to the muggle street.

I poked my head out and looked down the dark street. There was a delighted gruff a few feet away from me and Snuffles came out of the darkness.

"Snuffles!" I called out to him.

Snuffles gruffed at me as he trotted happily towards me.

"I'm so glad to see you!" I scratched his ears as I closed the door after him.

He panted happily and licked my hand.

"I'll send another platter of chicken up to your room. Do you want extra blankets again?" Tom patted Snuffles head affectionately.

"No, just the chicken and water. Thank you Tom!" I smiled at him and ran up the stairs with Snuffles on my heels.

I held my finger to my lips as we passed Harry's room. He was still paranoid about the black dog he had seen before that I didn't want him to know about Snuffles quite yet. Snuffles tip toed with a tilted head at me. I shook my head and opened my door and let him.

"I don't want you to scare Harry." I told him as his tail started to wag at the smell of chicken.

"Eat. Drink. Be merry." I laughed as he started to eat.

I sat on my bed and read some more of my books. I wanted to get as much of a head start to try and stay ahead of Hermione, but knowing her, she was still going to know everything before the classes even touch the topics in the books.

Snuffles ate as much as he could and he actually collapsed next to his water and lapped it up. I laughed as he grumbled in the corner of my room. Ariel even jumped off the bed and laid next to him and started to eat the smaller pieces of chicken.

He thumped his tail once in content and he started to snore. I giggled and put my books in my trunk as quietly as I could.

I had gotten a new hair brush after Snuffles first night with me, so I went and got his brush and I started to groom his coat. It was looking better than it had that first time, but he was still matted.

"You're going to need a haircut to get rid of all these knots." I muttered to myself.

Snuffles stopped snoring and he started to whimper and spasm as he dreamed. I paused my brushing and kept a hand in his fur.

"Snuffles?" I didn't want to wake him if he was having a good dream.

His whimpers started to sound pained and scared.

"Snuffles!" I put a hand on the back of his neck and tried to wake him.

He woke up with a bark and tried to turn around but I kept my grip on his neck.

"Snuffles it's okay! It's me. It's Cassie." I tried to be soothing but he just kept up a fight.

I jumped up before letting him go. His teeth snapped at where my hands had just been.

"Easy boy." I held my hands up as he growled at me.

"Easy Snuffles, you're safe here. You're fine." I whispered, slowly getting down to my knees.

His brown eyes grew softer when he realized where he was. He dropped to his belly and crawled to me, whining softly.

"Hush Snuffles. Come to bed with me, you're okay." I let him lick my palm before I stood up and got him to jump on the bed.

"I'm going to change into my pajamas then we'll go right to sleep." I kept my voice quiet.

I grabbed my clothes and walked into the bathroom. I gave my hair and teeth a quick brushing and I washed my nose piercing. When I walked out of the bathroom, Snuffles started to whimper and he just looked really sad.

"Snuffles." I said quietly as I climbed into bed.

He turned around and crawled up to me.

"I don't know what happened to you, but while you're with me, you're safe." I said quietly.

My eyes had started to get heavy and my voice had a hint of sleepiness in it. Snuffles licked my arm and curled up next to me.

I tried to comfort him a bit longer, but I put a hand in his fur and then I was asleep.

I didn't realize how short this chapter was, the document I'm keeping doesn't keep track of my words but that's okay. I am going to leave this one short because I don't want to shorten the story by adding two chapters into one. But as you can see, she's the one taking care of Snuffles. I'm looking forward to the big reveal of who Snuffles really is!

Shout out to afeleon276 for leaving a review!

afeleon276: You're welcome! And I am so sorry that you didn't get an alert! I can't seem to stop getting alerts on most of my stories I read close to three or four years ago. So it's great that they're still getting updated! But I don't remember what the last thing I read was so I've just been ignoring those alerts haha. As for your prediction, you'll just have to see! As for Sirius and his actions, he's always known about Harry. Whereas Cassie's mom, Karen, didn't tell Sirius that he had a daughter. She didn't tell him where she was and so he had no way of knowing where to even begin to look for her. It was coincidence that she happened to be at the Leaky Cauldron. And she happened to see him on the street. So Sirius took advantage of her taking care of him and stayed the night. But for story purposes, and to somewhat keep to the book, Sirius had to go check on Harry and see if he was okay.

Shout out to Pamela Hutchins for leaving a review!

Pamela Hutchins: So backstory; I got the Harry Potter books on audio and I was in the middle of the Goblet of Fire when Hermione was being dragged through the mud by Rita Skeeter and Molly was reading those articles. And so I didn't want to have Molly show favoritism and I wrote how I thought she would react in those situations. As for the pranks, we'll just have to see!

Shout out to DancingAdventurer45 for leaving a review!

DancingAdventurer45: I'm glad you're enjoying this!

Shout out to katie owl for adding this story to their favorite and following list and for leaving a review!

katie owl: There you are, darling! I was a little worried because I've been looking for my ... oldies? I'm blanking on the word right now so I'm sorry if that's offensive! But as for Snuffles, he won't be able to stick around as a pet due to the school allowing cats, owls, or toads currently. And you'll just have to wait and see about Narcissa!