Just a quick something to tie you all over until I work on some of my bigger stuff, enjoy!
P.S. isn't Ben Barnes the most perfect Young Sirius ever?
Grace
sighed, throwing her covers off of herself, rolling over onto her back to try
and cool down. Her eyes were determinately kept shut, she would fall back asleep. She put in a solid effort, but after
another half hour she knew it was a lost cause. Sighing, she got up as quietly
as she could so as to not wake her dorm mates and shrugged on the clothes she’d
slung over a chair for that morning. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she
slipped out of her dormitory and into the Gryffindor common room… and saw a
couple on the couch.
“Ugh
Goldstein, get a room.” She muttered as she stalked past them, apologising to
the Fat Lady for waking her.
“It’s
a little early to be bothering me.” She mumbled before settling back into
slumber.
Grace
grumbled, it was early. It probably
wasn’t even 4 AM yet, but for some reason she just couldn’t sleep lately,
although she had to admit it was a blessing for her schoolwork, which got done
on these early mornings. She settled on the stairs just a few hallways from the
common room, if a professor came by she could make a quick getaway.
She
had just pulled out the book she had borrowed for her transfiguration essay
when she heard the soft footsteps behind her. She jumped up, rushing behind a
suit of armour in an alcove, holding her wand in front of her, just in case.
Well…
she wasn’t expecting this…
It
was a dog. A shaggy, black, wild looking dog, but a dog none the less. It was
paused, looking over in her direction as if it knew she was there, before it
continued padding along.
“Wait!”
She whispered. Running out of the alcove, she’d always had a soft spot for
dogs, and seeing them was so rare at Hogwarts…
The
dog had stopped again, and was now watching her with large grey eyes. Slowly,
Grace kneeled and placed her transfiguration book beside her on the ground. She
stretched out that same hand towards the dog and held it suspended in the air.
The dog tilted its head as if considering her invitation.
“Come
on doggie, come here. I won’t hurt you, it’s ok.” Grace kept murmuring soothing
words, and then the dog trotted over to her, placing its large head in her
hand.
“Well
you’re quite friendly aren’t you? I hope you don’t have rabies,” the dogs eyes
closed as she scratched behind one ear, “or fleas, you don’t have fleas do you?”
The dog barked twice, and Grace looked around hurriedly for an approaching
professor or caretaker who could have heard.
“Hush,
you have to stay quiet or we’ll both be found out.”
He
barked again.
“If
you bark again, I swear I will leave you here.” She tried to speak sternly to
the dog, attempting to get through some kind of urgency.
If
the dog noticed, it ignored her. But Grace couldn’t resist it, it had rolled
over and was now looking up at her with its big doggy eyes, tongue lolling out
of its mouth.
“Who
wants a belly rub?” Grace coo’d, rubbing her hand through the dogs fur as it
wriggled around. “Who’s the cutest little doggie ever, huh? You are, yeah you
are.”
The
dog jumped up, placing its front paws on her knees and licking her face, Grace
laughed, “yeah, you are the cutest, that’s right!” The dog barked again, but
Grace had forgotten the reason they were being quiet. “I just wanna play with
you all day!”
It
was then that Grace noticed the light coming from further down the hallway, a
light that had nothing to do with the slowly approaching dawn. She gave a quick
last head scratch to the dog, grabbed her bag and scrambled back to her common
room before whichever professor it was could dock her house points.
If
she had looked back one last time, she would have seen the shaggy black dog
looking after her with an intelligence and humour far above his species, and
quickly picking up the transfiguration book she had left behind and melting
into the darkness.
***
“Meadows.”
“Black.”
Grace greeted Sirius bluntly, she’d never really had much to do with James
Potter’s best friend, and had no intention of starting anything now. She had
nothing against him personally, he was free to stick his tongue down the throat
of whatever girl was dumb enough to fall for him, Grace just intended to keep
herself out of his drama-filled life.
“That’s
a pretty cold reception, want me to warm it up for you?”
“Only
if that involves you jumping in a fire.”
“Fires
of love, perhaps?”
Grace
gave him a deadpan stare, “what do you want?”
“Nothing,
nothing, -”
“Then
go away.”
“-
I just heard that this was yours.” He held out the transfiguration book, and
watched her previously guarded eyes widen in surprise.
“I’ve
been looking for this all day! Where did you find it? I was sure I left it with
the -” she stopped herself, not wanting to tell Sirius about the dog. There’s
no telling how many jokes he’d make out of it.
“Left
it with the…?” Sirius asked, chortling when she snatched the book from his
hands.
“with
the other books I’d returned to the library, of course.”
He
had to admire her quick save, it would have been believable if he hadn’t known
exactly where she’d left it.
“mhmm,
well if you want some friendly advice, that alcove isn’t the best place for
shacking up, it’s fairly busy -”
“I
was not shacking up -”
“Then
why was your book on the ground there? Cosy place to sit and study maybe?”
Her
cheeks were flaming with hints of anger, and maybe a hint of embarrassment? She
turned on her heel and walked up to her dormitory, knowing full well he
couldn’t follow behind.
Sirius
dropped into the chair next to James, eyes still on the staircase she had
disappeared up. James cleared his throat.
“I
saw all of that, for the record.”
“So
what?”
“Grace
Meadows? Well, she’s not exactly your type mate. More… Mooney’s type. Bookish.”
Sirius
chuckled again, looking at his friend, “she likes dogs.”
“You
didn’t…”
“It’s
not like I meant to, how was I supposed to know she’d be in the hallways at 4
in the bloody morning?”
“If
only we had a map of the entire castle that showed us where everyone was, that
would have been really useful.”
“Oh
shut it, Potter.” Sirius said, ignoring his snickering friend, mind instead of
the memories of Grace Meadows’ excited eyes as she had extended her hand to
him, the dog version of him. A side of her that she’d never shown to the human
him, a side that he was now extremely curious of, and a side he was determined
to see more of.
“Oh
no,” Remus had joined them, “I know that smirk, I know that look. What poor
girl are you chasing now?”
***
Grace
really couldn’t sleep, it wasn’t that
she was looking for the dog. The cold-cuts of pork she’d swiped from dinner
were for her, in case she got hungry. They definitely
weren’t for the dog.
“Here
doggie doggie, where are you?”
She
was wandering around the alcove she had found him yesterday, hoping that
somehow the dog would be here again. She had almost given up when she head the
light padding of feet behind her.
“There
you are! I thought you weren’t going to show up!” Grace fell to her knees,
ruffling the dogs fur. “But it’s not polite to keep a lady waiting, a gentleman
would have shown up early.” The dog nuzzled her hand, and then smelled her bag,
letting out a whimper.
Grace
took out the meat, and laughed as it was practically inhaled. “Hungry are you?
Well I don’t have any more so you can stop sniffing me!” She didn’t have
anything else in her bag, except for her wand of course. After her encounter
with Black yesterday she’d decided it best that she didn’t bring anything with
her that she could leave behind.
“And
you got me in quite a situation yesterday.” Grace said conversationally as she
leaned back against a wall, stretching her legs out in front of her. The dog
lowered itself to the ground, its front paws and head resting on her thigh.
“I
left my book here and you know who found it? Sirius Black.” The dog looked up
at her, “see, even you know he’s bad news. Well, he’s not bad news, but he’s
just the kind of person that you admire from afar. Oh god, not admire, that’s
not what I meant at all.” She looked down at the dog, its not like it was
actually listening, it was a dog. “I
mean, of course he’s gorgeous, everyone knows that. He’s Sirius Black, but I don’t know, there just doesn’t seem to be
anything more than that.”
The
dog, which had somehow looked smug a second ago, now looked like it was judging
her.
“Don’t
you judge me! It’s not like you know who I’m even talking about!” She sighed,
“I just don’t know him, and it’s not like we have anything in common… not like
I have any idea what his hobbies are either… the highlight of his life seems to
be shagging every girl he can find in every available broom cupboard.”
The
dog growled lightly.
“Maybe you’re
right.” She scratched the dogs head, “and who am I to say anything, the
highlight of my day is sitting here talking to a dog, how sad is that?”
She sat there,
contemplating Sirius Black. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, she never
thought about him this much, but then they never usually had any interaction.
Other than that time they were paired up in potions.
“You know, this
one time Sirius and I were put together for potions,” she laughed at the
memory, “he somehow melted a hole in the bottom of his cauldron, but then it
didn’t matter because he’d managed to turn our potion into a solid, so nothing
spilled out. We didn’t even notice until we were cleaning up at the end. I was
so angry that we’d failed the assignment, but in hindsight it’s just funny.”
She yawned, and
the dog yawned straight after her. “Am I keeping you up? Do you have an owner
you’re supposed to be going back to?”
It looked her in
the eye, almost as if to say “do I look
like I belong to someone?”
“Right, I
suppose not.”
They sat there
in a comfortable silence, Grace’s mind still filled with Sirius. “Besides, it’s
not like he’d ever go for someone like me anyway.” Her voice was small, but the
dog’s head jerked up as if it had actually understood. “Oh come on, his world
is too messy, there’s too many girls willing to hex anyone he looks at twice.
It’s better I keep my standards lower. Like Patrick Casely, he’s nice.”
The dog growled,
darker than it had before.
“Hey, don’t get
so angry, it’s just my pathetic excuse for a love life.” She stroked him
softly, “calm down, there’s nothing to get angry over anyway. I mean, he’s
invited me to go with him on the next Hogsmede trip, but it’s not like it
actually means anything.”
The
dog stood, all of its happy demeanour gone.
“Oh
don’t go away, I’m sorry, I won’t say anything else. Don’t go.”
It
lay back down, even if it was tenser than before.
After
a while Grace noticed the time, “I have to go soon, people will start heading
down to breakfast.”
The
dog grumbled.
“Don’t
be like that, I’ll see you tomorrow, it’s only a day.”
***
“Well
someone’s in a bad temper.”
“Yeah,
if you don’t look somewhere else I think Casely might spontaneously combust.
The poor bloke’s sweating he’s so nervous.”
Sirius
stabbed a potato, averting his eyes from the Ravenclaw table where Patrick
Casely was sitting.
“You
look exhausted.” Remus commentated.
“Not
just exhausted, you look like the back end of a dissected beetle.” James
remarked, “and judging by your bad temper, getting up early to meet Meadows
isn’t really working for you.”
Sirius
grumbled, “She fancies Casely.”
“Oh…”
“She
thinks I’m a shallow flirt.”
“Well
she’s not exactly wrong…”
“She
thinks I shag girls in broom cupboards.”
“Again…
not exactly wrong…” James said.
“Did
anything good come out of this morning?” Remus asked lightly.
A
slow smirk spread over Sirius face, “I’m the highlight of her day.”
“Well
that’s something!” James thumped his friend on the back, excited for him,
“anything else?”
“Yeah.”
“Go
on then!”
“She
thinks I’m gorgeous.”
Remus
shook his head, rolling his eyes at his friend’s dreamy expression “of course
she does.”
***
Sirius
continued to meet her, every morning they would either sit in the hallway,
sometimes they walked around. One time he led her to the kitchens, he smiled
when he remember how she had praised him for ‘finding them’. She really thought
he was just a dog, she had no idea.
Sirius
was currently sat outside with his herbology report, casually flicking his eyes
over to Remus’s paper to try and find the answers.
“Grace,
Grace!”
Sirius
whipped his head to the voice, he knew that voice, he’d been developing a
growing animosity for that voice ever since Grace had first mentioned him.
He
watched as Grace ran through the grounds, Patrick Casely trying to follow but
stumbling on the rocks and grassy terrain whereas she was graceful, true to her
name.
“Quit
Following ME!” Grace turned and shot a spell at him, immediately Patrick
stopped following her.
“Alright,
I’m going back inside!” He turned and muttered, “crazy bit-”
She
shot another spell that narrowly missed his ear, and he ran back to the castle
with his head down and no looks backwards. Sirius on the other hand, had barely
taken his eyes off her, until he lost her as she walked to the edge of the
forbidden forest. He launched to his feet, stripping off his clothes.
“You’re
not serious-” Remus began
“No
one else is out here,” Sirius countered, “she needs someone.” Turning into the
familiar form of the black dog, he bound away to where he had last seen her.
She
hadn’t gone far, only a few trees in before she had sat on the ground, head
between her knees. She lifted her face to look at him as he barked softly at
her. A small smile broke on her teary face, she’d been crying. That bastard had
made her cry-
But
he couldn’t think of that now, because she was holding her arms out to him in
invitation. He settled himself between her knees and stayed there as she
wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in the fur on his neck. How he
wished he wasn’t a dog right now, then he could wrap his arms around her too,
could tell her it was all ok.
“How’d
you find me?”
He
only gave her a stern look in return, pulling back and grabbing her bag between
his teeth, dancing out of the forest and dumping it on the ground. He sat
beside it and barked, wagging his tail when she laughed at him.
“You’re
like an overprotective mother hen.” Well that was certainly a description no
one had ever used for him before. “There’s nothing dangerous this close to the
edge of the forest, quit being such a worrywart.”
Since
when was Grace Meadows so alright with breaking rules? She was right, they barely
knew each other, although they were a lot closer now that they’d been spending
every morning together. Not that she knew that, of course.
“Alright,
let’s go back.” He looked at her, “I’m fine, I promise.”
She
could tell that the dog didn’t believe her, and she began wondering when she
had started to give the dog thoughts and emotions. When they reached the castle
doors the dog turned away.
“Right,
you can’t just walk in the castle whenever you feel like.” Unless Sirius was
hearing things, she sounded upset. “Well I’ll see you later then.”
***
“Hey
Grace, you ok? I heard what happened.”
She
looked at him carefully, “Are you alright Black?”
“Yes
I’m alright, but I was asking about you.”
“I’m
fine.”
“You
sure?”
“Yes
I’m sure.”
“You
want to talk about it?”
She
looked startled, “no Black, I don’t. And we barely know each other.”
“I
think you’d be surprised…”
“What’s
that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.”
He said quickly.
She
eyes him curiously, before sighing, “I just thought he was nice, shows what I
know doesn’t it?”
“Mmm,
Casely’s a dolt.”
“Isn’t
he just!” She laughed, the sound of it lifting Sirius’ heart. She looked him in
the eye again, sincerely this time, “thanks, Black.”
He
coughed, “My name’s Sirius, in case you didn’t know.”
“…Of
course I know…”
“Well
I wasn’t sure… doggie doggie was getting a little old…” He smirked at her
frozen expression, and watched as the red blossomed on her cheeks, almost in
slow motion.
“What?”
“Although
I must say, you give one of the best belly rubs I’ve ever gotten.”
“Black.”
“Sirius,”
he corrected.
“Do
you mean to tell me, that the -” She stopped speaking, as if unsure of herself,
as if the evidence had to be pointing to a different conclusion. But another
look at those grey eyes told her he was telling the truth, those eyes had
greeted her every morning. “You’re the dog?”
He
laughed, “don’t look so surprised.”
“Don’t
look so surprised!? Are you – are you even registered? You know that’s
illegal-”
“Relax,
you’re like an overprotective mother hen.” Her mouth gaped like a fish as he
used her own words against her. He stepped closer to her, grinning when she
didn’t step away.
“You
slept on my lap.” She whispered.
“One
of my favourite memories.”
“You
licked my face.”
“Also,
one of my favourites.” His nose brushed hers, their lips barely a breath apart.
Her eyes were fluttering closed, and she was raising herself on her tiptoes to
meet him, and that’s when he closed the distance, capturing her lips with his
and wrapping his hand in her hair.
He
heard James cat calling from the other end of the room, but he was delicately
ignored as Sirius kissed Grace again and again.
“Just
checking-” Grace got out between kisses, “you really don’t have rabies right?”
He
sighed, kissing her jaw, “no rabies.”
“No
fleas?”
“No
fleas.”
“…”
“What
now?” he asked, humouring her.
“Picturing
you in a cute little collar. With a little bell.”
Sirius’s
eyes darkened, “that can go both ways you know. I’ll gladly wear the collar,
but you’ve got to wear one for me too.”
Her
stomach tumbled at his words, words that somehow didn’t match the impish smirk
on his face, “I prefer dog Sirius, dog Sirius can’t talk.”
His
smirk widened, “well if you accompany me to a broom cupboard, I’m sure I could
find something doggy to keep you
entertained.”
He
almost burst out laughing at the priceless expression on her face, and he could
tell she was about to retort something, but he cut her off, stealing her lips
again.
“Doggy
later, kissing now.” He murmured, grinning into the kiss.
She
looped her arms around his neck, this was going to be interesting.
