There is a hell, believe me, I've seen it.

There is a heaven, let's keep it a secret.

The Comforting Dog

Sirius had went through to the common room hesitantly with the rest of the group, leaving Riley behind with Claudia. He looked at her one last time before going through and he still couldn't believe she was his, technically. She had picked him. She wanted him. He had never been as happy. When they got into the common room, it was empty. The Marauders went to their usual seats in front of the fire and Lily joined.

"What do you reckon she's here for?" James asked, looking at both Lily and Sirius.

Sirius shrugged and Lily shook her head.

"I'm not sure," Lily said. "Maybe her mother wrote them another letter and she's just delivering it."

"Suppose," James said.

Sirius really didn't know why Claudia was there but he prayed it wasn't for trouble. He looked on the desk behind him and picked up the Evening Prophet. He read the headline out to the group.

"That was quick for the Aurors," Remus said and put out a hand for the paper. Sirius handed it over to him, too tired to read the article himself. He saw Remus muttering to himself while he scanned over it. He looked up at everyone, a dismayed expression on his face. "The murder, it's…it's-"

Remus stopped himself due to the shouting outside. Everyone in the room became quiet to listen to the words being yelled. Sirius could make out Riley's quick tongue of Spanish and then finished the sentence in English. She use to do that when she was studying, change languages so quickly. He loved the fact she could do that. Riley then stormed through the portrait hole and didn't acknowledge anyone in the room. Everyone then turned back to what they were originally doing.

"What were you saying, Moony?" asked Sirius.

"What is Riley's father's name?" Remus asked.

"Something like Flavo or Flav, why?"

"Flavio Martinez?"

"Yeah, that's it," Sirius said, getting impatient. "Why?"

"He killed Brandon Parker's grandparents."

"No shit!" James said and snatched the paper from Remus.

"Please tell me this is one of your jokes that didn't turn out funny again, Moony," Sirius said and squeezed beside James and Lily. He then read the start of the article and saw Riley's fathers name. "I'm going to go see her."

He stood up and got to the third step on the girls dormitories stairs and fell flat on his face and slid back into the common room.

"Forget the stairs were enchanted?" Lily asked.

"Oh shut up, Evans," Sirius muttered. "Cover her eyes from me, Prongs, please."

James did as he was told and Sirius transformed into his animagus form. He padded up the stairs and went into the Girls 5th year dorm. The door had been left slightly ajar so it was easy for him to push open with his paw. When he went in, Sirius saw five beds, all with the hangings closed. He instinctively went to the bed on the right of the middle bed and he was just in luck. It was Riley's bed. He put his head further through the hangings and saw Riley curled up in her bed, sobbing into her pillow. She didn't know about him being an animagus but he knew right now she wouldn't care. He jumped up onto the bed which startled her.

Riley jumped up and gasped when she saw the dog at the bottom of her bed. He sat up straight and then lay down, his head resting on her legs.

"I don't know who's dog you are," she said to him, her voice stuffy. "But at least you won't judge me."

Sirius made a whining noise then curled up in a ball like her. Riley lay back down in bed and soon enough, the two of them fell asleep.

X

Riley woke up the next morning to the chatter of her roommates. She could hear Alice and Mary talking away to each other as they got ready but she didn't hear a thing from Lily. Perhaps she was in the shower, Riley thought. She sat up in her bed, the dog still lying there beside her. She petted it on the head and stroked it's head.

"You're gonna have to leave now, dog," Riley said quietly. "Thank you for last night."

The dog awoke slowly then stretched. He didn't seem to want to move.

"I could always stay in bed today, I don't feel like going to class at all today," Riley told it. "Would you stay with me?"

The dog seemed to know what she was saying and lay back down on the bed, it's tail wagging. Something about the dog comforted Riley which was strange. She never usually warmed up to animals as quickly as she did the previous night. She then realized that she had been talking to a dog like it was a person and came to the conclusion she had lost her mind.

"Riles, are you up?" she heard Lily's voice ask, getting louder.

Riley peaked her head out. "Yeah but I think I'm staying in bed today."

"Come on," Lily said and stood next to her bed. "You can't hide."

It took Riley a minute to realise what Lily was on about and then sighed.

"Try me," she said and closed her hangings again.

Outside in the room, Lily sighed and went down to the common room, the other girls following. James, Remus and Peter were leaving too.

"Where's Black?" Lily asked.

Peter went to answer but Remus stopped him,

"He went down to breakfast early so he could go see Professer Slughorn about something," Remus said.

"Oh, I see," Lily said, skeptically. "Riley's refusing to go to class today."

"I don't blame her," James said. "Everyone will be talking about it. Did she say anything to you about it?"

"Nothing at all but I let her know I knew. She's a lot better this morning than what I expected, she's rather calm."

X

"I wish I knew your name," Riley said to the dog. "I don't like calling you 'dog' all the time. It sounds rude."

The dog hopped down off of her bed and pulled the hangings to the side with it's teeth. Riley swung round and sat at the edge of her bed to see it's next move and it wasn't what she expected. Before her eyes, the dog that had came and lay beside her all night transformed into Sirius. Riley sat gaping at the sight.

"Alright there, love?"

"What the- how in the name-What even- You're an animagus?"

"It would appear so," he smiled and sat down next to Riley. "I couldn't get up the stairs last night because well, I'm not a girl, so I transformed and now we're here."

"How long have you been one? Why are you one? Are you even legal?"

Sirius sighed and laughed lightly. "I hate it when you find things out, you always do 20 Questions after it."

"I'm intrigued!" Riley said in her defense.

"Are you sure you don't want to go down and at least get something to eat?" Sirius changed the subject.

At this, Riley seemed to close up. She got back under her covers and buried her face into the pillow.

"No, I don't," she said to him. "I'm not hungry and everyone will be talking about me and most likely they will all hate me too. I'd rather stay here, thank you very much."

"I don't hate you. Lily, Remus, James and Peter don't hate you."

"That's different," she argued.

"How?'

"Because I said so."

"I understand the situation you're in but you aren't your dad, Riles, nor are you Claudia. You're better than them, you just need to show everyone that."

"Don't make me go today, please," Riley begged. "Monday, I promise. It's not as if people won't see me over the weekend anyway."

"Alright then, we'll go to the kitchens later then," Sirius proposed.

"Okay then."

They both sat in silence for a while. Sirius was sure Riley had went back to sleep and decided to get changed into some fresh clothes. He had to transform to get up the stairs again but transformed back when he got to the outside of the girls dormitory door. He entered to find Riley putting her hair up in a bun with a pair of three-quarter length joggies on and a baggy t-shirt.

"I take it you want to go to the kitchens now?" Sirius asked.

"If that's okay," Riley said to him. "Everyone should be in their first class by now.:

Sirius took her hand and they made their way to the kitchens. The castle was dead as they walked through it but they would often dodge the odd teacher walking through the halls.

"Did you know Claudia and my Dad were Death Eaters?" Riley asked Sirius as they walked down the stairs to the dungeons.

"Not one bit," Sirius said. "I would of told you, wouldn't I?"

Riley shrugged. "Where were you then? Apparently Regulus and I going a walk was intentional so I didn't know."

"I was in the kitchen, helping."

"Are you kidding?" Riley asked. "You cook?"

"When your house elf refuses to feed you, what else are you meant to do? Starve?"

"Okay, okay, I see where you're coming from. I wonder what I'll be doing during summer."

"Spend it with your mum?"

"Nah, I can tell there's going to be a lot more to this than we think," Riley sighed. They had reached the portrait and she tickled the pear. Comfort food was the best food.