Catch Me If You Can → George Weasley

Twenty-Two

If anyone else were to pick up this notebook, they would be worried about Apollo's sanity. His handwriting progressively got messier as he kept writing, obsessing over a case that was over twelve years ago. Unanswered questions, circled to the point of illegibility.

Apollo glared down at his notes. The questions were taunting him through the pages. It was getting to him. His meaningless research was driving him to the point of insanity. He threw the notebook back to the floor. He turned, and angrily punched the tree behind him. It did nothing but give him bloody knuckles.

When he turned back around, he was faced with a familiar face, staring down at him concerned. "Are you alright, Apollo?" Pip asked, head tilted in question.

Apollo was not sure whether he should lie or not. He settled on a shrug and he leaned back against the trunk of the tree. Pip sat down across from him, and picked up the notebook, flipping through the pages. Apollo did not stop him. In all honesty, he wished he never decided to stop being apathetic about the whole situation. It was much easier when he did not care about Sirius Black.

"You've been busy," Pip noted.

Apollo grimaced. "I don't even know why I started doing this," He admitted. "But there's something off about the whole thing." Pip nodded at him to go on. "Black isn't on his family tree, a lot of whom are known Death Eaters. Then there's the fact that he was best friends with James Potter all throughout his years at Hogwarts. If a blasting curse was used in the incident twelve years ago, which I think is likely the case, since what else leave a crater in the earth? then why did Peter Pettigrew leave only a finger being during his death?" Apollo ran a hand across his face. "Then there's the question of how he escaped Azkaban without help, and how he keeps getting into the castle undetected. And the thing I'm most confused about, is why wouldn't he defend himself when he was caught? He should have had a fair trial. I just don't get it!" He threw his hands up in annoyance.

"It felt better to talk about it, did it not?" Pip asked calmly.

Apollo nodded. "Thanks."

Pip stood up, having dropped the notebook during Apollo's rant. "I do not need to remind you to be careful, no?"

"No," Apollo murmured. "Hey, uh, what time is it?" He asked.

Pip glanced up to the sky. "I would say one, or two," He replied. "I will leave you, for the time being. I hope to see you again."

Apollo waved goodbye, and watched as the centaur left back into the dark of the forest. That's when a pair of eyes caught his eye in the bushes, watching him. He glanced down beside him - Otto was still asleep. He looked back to the bushes, and out emerged a dog. A large, black dog. It slowly approached him.

Apollo allowed the dog to do so. As it did, he got an idea, a theory he had be denying. He picked up his notebook, and opened up to the page where he questioned the escape method. Gently, he wrote down the word 'animagus'. Nothing else made sense. Now the dog was right beside him. Just as Apollo wrote the last letter of the word, the dog grabbed the notebook in it's mouth and started running.

"Hey!" Apollo yelled after it. He did not spare another second, he pushed himself up and ran after it, turning into his own animagus form in the process. He managed to catch up easily, seeing as wolves were faster than dogs. Apollo tackled the dog, both of them going rolling in the dirt.

Apollo was surprised by the sheer strength of the dog. It was definitely able to hold its own. Apollo did not expect this. That is why he was so surprised when the creature's claws dug into his shoulder to thrown him off. It worked, but not for long. Apollo quickly got back up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. He and the dog circled each other, both glaring at the other. Apollo thought that this dog was almost.. human. Before he could ponder on it more, the dog jumped at him.