Shelter • wolfstar au

01 ; the new guest

Chapter One: The New Guest

15 November, 1981

The fierce wind of the cold November night was enough to keep everyone inside their homes. Windows rattled and trees swung as the atmosphere seemed sworn to destroy everything in its path, the dark sky cheering it on. People who were already outside ran for cover, and even animals hid behind bushes and under trees to keep from the biting cold.

However, among this calamity was seen a large, black dog staggering across the deserted streets. The wind, nor the cold seemed to bother him, as he walked in a painfully straight line, his claws digging into the cobbled pathway. He seemed calm despite his surroundings. But if one were to look into his mind, one would have seen a storm raging inside - a storm that was a thousand times fiercer and more vicious than the one in his surroundings. The storm rattled his bones with insufferable pain, ate away his heart with raging betrayal, and shook through his very core with maddening anger.

The howling wind felt like a calm breeze to him.

He stopped in his tracks as he came across a small stream of water running along the side of the street. Walking towards it, he looked into his reflection. Nothing showed on his face - not the overwhelming pain that racked his whole body, not the anger that he felt - but as he continued staring at the dark water which was rippled by the wind, the view suddenly changed.

There appeared a rippling image on the surface of the water, a sight that still haunted him - James lying dead in front of the door, his hair messier than usual, his glasses whipped off his face; he saw Lily lying on the floor upstairs, her face ever so peaceful, her hand protectively gripping a cot on which lay a baby Harry, lying on his stomach as though he was just sleeping.

The dog stumbled backwards, his heart pounding furiously inside his chest. Blinking away the memory, he continued walking towards - where, really? He didn't have a destination in mind. James, Lily and Harry were dead, Voldemort was in power, Peter was locked up in Azkaban. Where would he go?

He couldn't go to his family like any normal person could. He did not have a family. The people who have birthed him, fed him, raised him, were distant from him now; he has long stopped considering them a family. His parents hated him, his brother betrayed him, and the remaining branches of his twisted family were too insignificant to even be considered by him.

The only family he had accepted and loved were the Potters. And they were dead.

Sirius, James and Peter were inseparable back at Hogwarts, always jumping into new adventures and getting into trouble. They had vowed to try as many sorts of magical adventures as they could, and it was in their third year that the idea of becoming animagi struck their young minds.

It was James who had first suggested it. It took them a year and a half to finally accomplish it, and Sirius was immensely proud of his dog form. He roamed around the Hogwarts grounds as a giant black dog whenever possible, and he loved staying like that. No one judged him when he was a dog, no one questioned his loyalty, and more important of all, he didn't need to talk. It was the most comforting thing about being an animagus, not to mention the countless memories he had made in the Forbidden Forest with James, who was a stag, and Peter, who was a rat.