A/N: I have to apologize for this chapter being so short and not very good. I wanted to get something up, but being in the middle of moving, a writer's block, and working two jobs, this was, unfortunately, the best I could come up with.

Apparently having brought many illegal—and much more dangerous—pets to Hogwarts during his own school days, Hagrid had readily agreed to look after, shudder, Procyon. He had even told Harry that he should be proud of how well-trained his dog was. Hagrid had been less impressed, though, by Harry and his friends walking across the grounds unsupervised when a murderous lunatic was out to kill Harry, and marched the trio back to the castle.

Any patience that Sirius gained in Azkaban was lost over the next couple of months. Sirius remembered how the first week or two of the new term went—students eager for another year at a magical castle with their friends staying up all hours of the night during the few days before homework became unavoidable—and knew he would have to wait until the excitement died down to be sure the Gryffindor Common Room would be empty enough for him to sneak into. (If he couldn't get the password, Sirius could get into the kitchen, steal a knife, and cut through the Fat Lady's portrait.)

But during the first week of classes, excitement did anything but die down. Some brat of Lucius Malfoy—whom Sirius remembered well from two years of Hogwarts and a marriage to his cousin—had gotten himself slashed up by a hippogriff in Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class. However—while Sirius did feel a pang of sympathy for Hagrid, who was caught up in thoughts of what would happen to his hippogriff—Hagrid was distracted enough for Sirius to get away unnoticed.

Unfortunately, Sirius had been cut off from reaching the Gryffindor Tower a couple of times by Remus turning a corner, and he had barely had time to hide in the shadows.

Harry had come to visit him a few times, under James' old invisibility cloak. During one visit—since he was assured that Ron hardly ever took 'Scabbers' out of his cage since all the rat ever did now was try to bite him and escape—Sirius decided to wait until Halloween to try anything. Harry had promised to sneak the dog into the Gryffindor Tower while his friends were at Hogsmeade.

Halloween, and everything would finally be over.

Harry raced to the Gryffindor Tower. He didn't have long before Ron and Hermione and the rest of his class would be back from Hogsmeade. He had promised Procyon he would sneak him into the tower during Hogsmeade weekends, and he hadn't kept that promised yet.

On his way to collect his invisibility cloak, Harry was stopped by Lupin, who invited Harry to his office for some tea and to see the new grindelow. Harry had accepted and lost track of time. Even though Harry doubted that Procyon—being a dog—understood what Harry had promised, Harry still felt incredibly guilty about not retrieving his dog sooner.

Harry almost yelled the password so he wouldn't have to stop running when he reached the Fat Lady's portrait, but the sound of her screaming stopped him. He skidded to a halt, panting in the corridor, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

There was a man slicing the Fat Lady's empty portrait. Sirius Black.

Black was better groomed and looked healthier than on his wanted posters. Harry briefly wondered how a man on the run had the time to fix up his appearance.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.

The knife flew out of Black's raised hand and clattered on the floor. Black turned around, surprised to see Harry there. He looked… relieved?

"Harry! Thank Merlin!" Black smiled. But his grin didn't last. "Remus," Black croacked.