Daughter of the Dark

39

July 29th, 1993

Artemis' POV

"Mommy can we go yet?" Cassie asked me as she bounced on the bed.

"Soon dear, soon." I said and sat next to her.

Sirius wanted to wait till sun set, so we wouldn't be seen as we swam.

Then we would wait out the night in one of the sea caves and make our way for Hogwarts in the morning.

We ate the mushy dinner and stood up to leave.

Sirius pecked my lips before changing into a dog.

Cassie easily trotted through the bars before Sirius and I, and I barked at her to wait.

Sirius and I had to squeeze through the bars since we are bigger than Cassie.

Sirius bounded in front of Cassie and nudged her back when she would get ahead of us.

Cassie thinks that this is going to be fun.

She doesn't know how dangerous it will be or if she'll die today.

Once we were out of the prision we stood at the edge of the water.

Sirius and I shared a worry look before Sirius grabbed Cassie's scruff and wadded into the water.

I followed and hoped Sirius would keep her head above water.

I thrashed against the strong currents as they whipped and splashed against my fur.

It was almost dark when I haled myself on the pebbly shore.

A minute later Sirius came up on shore and dropped the wet mob of fur that is our daughter.

"Is she ok?" I barked at Sirius.

"I think she's just tired." Sirius woofed.

Sirius nudged her with his snout.

Her reaction was a huff and a whine.

Sirius grabbed her and we walked to the sea cave.

We lied down on the ground and curled around Cassie.

"How can you possible be tired you weren't even swimming." Sirius mumbled at Cassie.

Her response was a grunt.

The next morning I woke up and Sirius was already up and walking around the cave.

"They're already looking for us." He said.

"We'll be fine, they're looking for Sirius and Artemis Black not three dogs." I told him and nuzzled him with my snout.

Then Cassie began to wake up.

"Come on pup, on your paws." Sirius said and nudged her up.

She quickly got up and stretched her legs and bounded to the cave entrance.

Then we started walking.

We walked, and walked and walked.

We were used to not eating very much from being in Azkaban but my stomach was starting to growl.

It was sun set and Cassie was falling behind and was whining about being hungry.

Sirius was ignoring her and kept walking.

I was in between the two and bounded up to catch up to Sirius.

"Maybe we should stop, Cassie is tired." I told him.

"Really I couldn't tell from her constant whining." Sirius said sarcastically.

"I guess we can stop for tonight, but I want to get to Harry's aunt and uncle's house tomorrow, we check on Harry then we start towards Hogwarts." Sirius said.

I nodded and ran back to get Cassie and brought her to the spot Sirius found for us.

It was a hollowed out tree.

We all crammed into the hollowed out tree and immediately went to sleep.

The next day was full of walking again.

At some point in the day we rooted through a trash can.

Cassie loved the donuts. I can't blame her, her whole 4 years of living she's eaten that mushy crap.

Sirius and I watched her nudge a donut around with her snout and try and fit her paw through the hole.

Sirius woofed like if he was a human he would be laughing.

Once that was over we kept walking.

It was dark when we arrived at the street that said Privet Drive.

"This is it." I told Sirius.

We heard a lady screaming and looked up to see a very fat lady floating in the air.

"Well you don't see that everyday." Sirius said.

Cassie just stared at her in awe.

"Cool." She woofed.

"I'll try and find Harry, you stay here with Cassie." Sirius said and trotted out of the bush we were hiding behind.

Like 10 minutes later Sirius came back.

"I think I startled him, he was sitting on the curb and I barked at him and he fell back then the Knight Bus came and he got on and went." Sirius said.

"He'll be fine." I reassured him.

He flopped down, curled around Cassie and went to sleep.

Tomorrow we make our way toward Hogwarts.