Hagrid

"Sirius!" Hagrid was early. Sirius was still eating his breakfast.

"I'm in the kitchen!"

Hagrid filled the door to the kitchen.

"Morning, Sirius. I've brought a surprise for you."

"What kind of surprise?"

"Another walking companion."

Hagrid turned and went back to the front hall.

Sirius hadn't been done with his bacon and eggs, but he was now very worried and didn't know if he could stomach them. Hagrid meant well, but sometimes forgot that other people didn't think monsters made good pets.

Sirius considered whether he would rather meet his walking companion as a human or a dog. He settled on dog and wandered up to the front hall.

"Hullo, Sirius. Meet your new friend."

Standing next to Hagrid was his boarhound, Fang.

Padfoot sat down about a foot in front of Fang.

Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as he had expected. He looked at Fang, who looked extraordinarily confused, like he suspected Padfoot wasn't actually a dog but couldn't tell for sure.

Padfoot then eyed Hagrid, trying to convey a message of, "Are you just fooling around with me or what?"

When he looked back to Fang, the other dog had stood up to come examine Padfoot more closely. They were suddenly nose to nose. Padfoot tried to back away, but Fang was insistent on sniffing him.

"Good!" Hagrid said. "You're becoming fast friends!"

He hooked them both to leads and they headed out the door.

Padfoot trotted along at a brisk pace to keep up with Hagrid's long strides. He would sometimes forget that Fang was even there, walking on Hagrid's other side. Then he would catch a glimpse of Fang, still staring at him intently from behind his master's legs. When they stopped at a corner, Padfoot would try to move forward or back so that Fang couldn't see him. No matter where Padfoot was, Fang's unerring gaze would follow; there was no escaping it.

Hagrid didn't seem to notice the unbelievably intense one-way staring contest taking place at knee-level. He chatted away, talking about Hogwarts and the quidditch scores and how the weather was affecting his flobberworms.

Padfoot was half listening. He was interested in what Hagrid was saying. (At least, he was interested in what was going on at the school and how the Wigtown Wanderers were doing. He couldn't care less about flobberworms.) But it was hard to focus on what he was hearing when he could feel a pair of eyes boring through him.

Padfoot knew perfectly well that nothing bad would happen if Fang did decide that Padfoot was in fact Sirius in disguise. What could he do? He was a dog. He wasn't going to stand up in the middle of the park and yell, "Hey everybody! This bloke isn't really a dog!" Regardless, it made Padfoot uncomfortable.

They were standing by the water. Hagrid was feeding the ducks when Fang decided to investigate Padfoot again. He turned his head and was startled to see the boarhound less than an inch from his face. Padfoot took a few steps back, but Fang took a few steps forward to match.

Padfoot tried to step back again. This time, Fang approached and laid a big, licky, slobbery kiss between Padfoot's eyes. He shook his head to try to get the drool off, but only succeeded in getting it into his eyes.

Fang licked Padfoot's ear and the side of his neck.

"Aw!" Hagrid said. "He likes you."

Padfoot tried to give Hagrid a meaningful look. Hagrid, however, was not a master in subtlety. He stood there and smiled as Fang rested his chin on the back of Padfoot's neck and drooled on him.

Padfoot rolled his eyes. He started to walk back the way they had come.

"Are you ready to go?" Hagrid asked.

Padfoot nodded vigorously.

"It's getting a bit cold."

When they got back to Grimmauld Place, Sirius tried to say goodbye to Hagrid as quickly and politely as he possibly could, and then immediately went to take a shower. He washed his hair twice and still felt like he had drool dripping into his eyes.

Sirius was lying on the couch, reading some of his old Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle comics, when Remus showed up with some take-out from the Leaky Cauldron.

"Hey, buddy. I brought you lunch."

"Great! I'm starving," Sirius said, popping open the take-out box Remus had handed him and digging into his shepherd's pie. "I didn't finish my breakfast."

"How was your walk today?"

"Awkward."