Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Harry Potter & co. All belongs to J.K.Rowling and the publishers.

Mute Mutt

By: Jodelle

"A learned woman is thought to be a comet,

that bodes mischief whenever it appears."

So on September 1st Lily had the little black dog following her closely through the crowds at King's Cross. At on point she had had to carry him to keep him from getting trampled by the people getting off a train that had just come into the station. They had finally picked their way through the crush of people and were looking over at the barrier.

Lily checked over all her things one last time to make sure nothing had fallen off of her trolley and as she did this the puppy barked happily at a boy who was passing by them. Before the puppy could blink the boy was gone.

As Lily turned her attention back to the little black puppy she saw the puppy looking up at her with a lost expression on it's face. It didn't take Lily long to realize what the puppy was trying to tell her as another person went through the barrier. The puppy yelped in surprise as the boy disappeared through the barrier.

Lily scooped him up into her arms and whispered into his fur, "It's okay, Cappel. I know it sounds weird but we can get through the barrier just as easily as that boy. Mmmm, think of it as an illusion, the image of a wall is just there to keep muggle eyes from realizing that it is an entrance to the Wizarding part of the station."

Some people might have thought Lily Evans to be crazy for talking to her dog but Cappel seemed to understand her every word. His green eyes, the same shade of green as her own, shone with intelligence. Merlin, her dog even seemed to have a sense of humor as it gave off little barks when she said something funny.

Cappel wriggled in her arms until she put him down. He wagged his tail and bounced a little in his excitement before running through the barrier without any hesitation. Lily followed after the puppy but at a slower pace hoping that she wouldn't run over him on her way through.

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"Moony, let us get that, you know you're still too weak," A boy with messy black hair said as he tugged the handle on the trunk out of his tired friends grasp. Another black haired boy grabbed onto the other handle and together the two boys got the heavy trunk onto the train.

"Mr. Prefect, how many books did you put in there?" Sirius asked panting slightly from the task he'd just accomplished. Even though his friend was in bad shape from the full moon two days prior he couldn't help teasing him. Remus had proven the most strict and studious of their group so it was no surprise that he got the badge this year.

Remus still looked pale and sickly to some degree but despite all of that he glared fiercely at Sirius before smiling and shaking his head. "I'm tutoring some of the younger students in DADA so I had to bring my old textbooks as well as my new ones."

Peter had appeared at that moment carrying a small black puppy in his arms. The puppy licked his face and wriggled in his arms. James tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Looking up at James he grinned before holding the puppy out to him, "I found him trapped in a corner trying not to get stepped on no doubt."

James took the puppy in his arms and rubbed little circles on it's head before playing with its ears. His eyes widened as he took in the green eyes. So then he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, "When did Lily become an animagus?"

At his words all the boys came close to look at the puppy. It was true that the puppy had Lily's eyes and they all wondered for a moment if it really might be Lily before that belief was proven wrong. Lily Evans was standing in front of their group with an annoyed look on her face. "Why do you have my dog, Cappel, Potter?"

Remus took the puppy from James and handed it to Lily. "Peter saved it from being stepped on as it had been trapped in a corner. Although," Remus expression grew mischievous, "we also wondered if you'd become an animagus over the summer as this puppy has your eyes."

Lily grinned at Remus taking in his prefects badge and sighing with relief that he'd gotten the badge instead of one of the others. The green eyed puppy barked happily at her glad to be reunited with his owner.

"Thank you, Peter. And as for that must you always jump to conclusions. If I was a dog ,Potter, I'd probably have bitten you if you tried to pick me up."

James sighed at Lily's words blushing faintly. It wouldn't be surprising if he refused to talk to his friends for a while as he sulked over the humiliation he'd been put through.

"You do come up with the strangest ideas, James," Sirius said adding his two cents and solidifying his decision to ignore yet another friend until he got lonely enough.

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The first years stared in every direction as Lily led them to Gryffindor Tower. She wasn't very happy that one of Potter's group of mischief makers had gotten a prefect's badge but that group made up the entirety of the fifth year Gryffindors. At least it was Remus rather than James or Sirius either of which would have made a mess of everything.

Lily smiled when she saw that the staircase was in the right place for her to lead them through a shortcut. She knew she should be telling the first years about the castle but Remus seemed to be doing that for her.

There was the anticipated gasp by the students when the staircase above them moved. Lily muttered, "Thank Merlin", grateful that it hadn't been the staircase they were on. Two of the three new girls were fighting about something. Although Lily couldn't tell what the argument was about she hoped they wouldn't fight constantly as they were to share a dorm.

"He's really cute! You don't stand a chance with him Margot," the blond girl said with a sneer. The girl next to her rolled her eyes.

"Neither do you. He's a fifth year for Merlin's sake!" Lily instantly knew they were talking about Potter. Black's personality made the first years wary of him and Remus didn't appreciate the attention so he tried to blend in with the shadows. Someone liking Peter was unlikely.

Lily saw the group of Ravenclaws going in the opposite direct. The prefect leading them was Tammy Reed. As a blushing Tammy passed she mouthed, "Got lost." Losing her way was typical Tammy behavior as the girl could be quite forgetful. Their group had pressed themselves against the wall to let the Ravenclaws pass a few people saying hello or waving until they were all gone.

Ten minutes later the group had made it to Gryffindor Tower. Lily took a deep breath and said the password, "Goethe," as loud as she could. Before she let the students pass she asked them to repeat the password. After a chorus of Goethe Lily led them into the common room. A little black blur jumped a good four feet into her arms.

Lily smiled at Cappel's warm welcome. The little redhead made a cooing noise and asked if she could hold him. Lily was glad when Margot yelled from their dorm that she ought to see something. Scowling the girl ran up the stairs saying she was coming.

"Don't want to share him yet, Lils?"

James was giving her his trademark smile from his perch on the side of the couch. Lily smiled hesitantly in return hoping this was one of the times they wouldn't end up fighting. Looking down at Cappel Lily nodded.

"I just can't help it. I know it's weird but I find myself treating him almost like he's a child rather than a pet," Lily admitted blushing. "I hope I'm not becoming like those crazy cat ladies that never marry and have dozens of pets to make up for it."

"Don't worry about that Lils I'll make sure you get married."

Lily shook her head smiling faintly. The she noticed something odd about Cappel. "Why is Cappel covered in glitter," Lily asked putting his fur close to her face. As quickly as Lily got close to the black dog she pulled away and exclaimed, "He smells like dung bombs!"

James gave a nervous laugh and bolted out of the room in the direction of his dorm.

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What was Cappel doing during the sorting?

Cappel found himself floating in the air and started barking at the strange creature below him. It had big eyes and bat like ears, a house elf in short. He wasn't sure if he should be afraid of it but he was angry at it for putting him up in the air.

When Harry realized he couldn't get down no matter how much he struggled he tried to enjoy the experience. Harry thought about Skydiving and wondered if this was anything like jumping out of a plane.

His eyes became wide when he noticed the paintings were moving and talking. One of the paintings told him he was adorable which made him blush although with his dark fur you couldn't tell.

The elf moved a tapestry aside revealing a secret passageway and within five minutes they were in front of the Fat Lady. Disregarding the Fat Lady asking for a password the elf tapped on the frame five times then three and then five again causing a small door to appear.

Gryffindor Tower was amazing. When Harry was lowered to the ground he ran around the room in excitement before falling down dizzy on a plush red rug. He felt so warm sitting by the fire that he almost curled up to sleep. His curiosity however was too great to allow him to sleep.

He at first tried to go up the girl's staircase and was startled when it became a slide. Harry tried in vain to run up the slide a few times barking happily as he slid back down. Then he turned to face the other staircase. Harry ran at the other staircase. If this staircase also turned into a slide he wondered if he could manage to get all the way up the steps if he hurried.

This time he made it up the stairs easily although he stared at the staircase wondering if it could change into a slide at any given moment. When nothing happened Harry lost interest. All of the doors were open so you could see inside. Each dorm was filled with red and gold furnishing. Harry had gone past several rooms before admitting they were all the same. Now in the fifth year dorm what impressed Harry the most were the large four poster beds. Excited at the fact there were no adults to tell him no he gave a running jump onto the bed.

Harry bounced atop the bed for almost ten minutes before he grew tired. Then slipping off the bed he sniffed around the room. The trunks at the bottom of the beds caught his attention. He tried in vain to open them with his paws before sighing in defeat. After trying the first three trunks Harry approached the last one.

S. Black. The trunk smelled awful even from a distance. Harry backed away before racing toward the trunk in hopes that it would open if he used his full weight against it. When Harry made impact with the trunk an angry noise was emitted. Scared Harry tried to get away from the trunk but wasn't fast enough.

The trunk lid opened slightly letting out sparks and smoke. Harry was bathed in soot and glitter as he stood there blinking in surprise. He gave barks that if he'd been human would have been recognized as coughs. Feeling ill from the foul smell Harry darted out of the room closing the door with a kick from his back foot in hopes that the smell wouldn't follow him.

Bounding downstairs Harry curled up in front of the fireplace. If only he hadn't indulged his curiosity and had stayed down here he wouldn't reek of that black powder. Hoping to not get into any more trouble he decided to stay put until Lily came back.

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Sirius gave a racking cough upon opening his trunk. He waved his hands frantically trying to dispel the smoke. Remus laughed slightly at his friend as his face was cover in black soot.

Sirius wiped his face as clean as he could on his sleeve before glaring heatedly at Remus. He tried to throw an insult but just ended up coughing again.

"I-hate-you-Moony."

Remus smiled shaking his head before walking over to assess the damage. All of Sirius's clothes would need a wash while there was nothing to do to help his books other than airing them out. His books would probably smell bad for a few weeks.

James came into their dorm panting. He didn't look up for a few minutes as he caught his breath. When he saw Sirius he snickered loudly before trying to muffle the sound with his hands.

"Thanks Prongs," Sirius said sarcastically. Reaching into his truck he pull out a handful of the soot and threw it at him. Luckily the black powder didn't make it very far.

"Padfoot! You're getting it everywhere and it stinks!" Peter whined as he started to wheeze. Sirius hit him on the back with a little too much force. Peter was torn between thanking him and complaining about how much his back now hurt so he said nothing.

Ignoring Peter Sirius opened a window. Taking his clothes out of his trunk careful not to drop anymore soot into the room he held them out the window and shook the powder out of them as best as he could.

"I did warn you Padfoot that those things were volatile."

Sirius said nothing to that as he shook his favorite cloak out. He swore when one of his clothes fell out of his grasp. He was about to panic about losing it when James did a summoning charm to bring it back.

After twenty minutes of cleaning up the mess James asked about Lily's dog.

"Are you saying a dog did this. We should complain to McGonagall!" Sirius said slamming his hand down on the matress. If it had been a person he would have pranked them viciously by now.

"And tell her about the dungbombs, Padfoot?" Remus argued making a point.

Sirius groan putting his head in his hands. "That was twenty galleons worth of prank supplies!" He looked like he wanted to rip out his hair in frustration.

James heard Remus and Sirius arguing about revenge as a wave of exhaustion came over him. He hoped Sirius wouldn't trouble Lily about the dog even if it was a little mischief maker.

"Sirius! It's an innocent puppy. I doubt Cappel planned to destroy your dungbombs. He was probably scared silly when they went off."

James flopped back on his bed stretching some as he closed his eyes. He cleared his mind of all things except his lovely Lily and soon slipped into sleep.

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Lily was confused when she couldn't get up the stairs with Cappel. She almost gave up after her fifth attempt when her room mate suggested the she use wingardium leviosa to get him upstairs. Unhappy that her dog would be forever unable to get into her dorm with ease Lily had to simply agree as she was very tired.

Cappel had protested some to being levitated as he'd already experienced it once already that very day. Lily would have just collapsed into sleep but getting a whiff of Cappel's fur with it's smell of dung bombs Lily scooped him up and headed into the bathroom.

Placing Cappel in the shower stall she turned on the water. She was grateful that he didn't object to being cleaned. If her friends complained about Cappel barking or acting rowdy she'd have to send him home.

Taking some dog soap out of the cabinet she scrubbed him roughly until she could no longer smell any of the bad smell. Letting the soap be rinsed out Cappel gave her a doggy grin.

Turning the water off Lily quickly said, "Please don't shake yourself dry. I'm tired and don't want to get wet!"

Cappel regarded her with what she considered an amused look. After becoming dry via a spell they both went back into the dorm.

"Night, Cappel."

In his mind he whispered, "Night, Lily."