McKinnon

| CHAPTER ELEVEN |

    Sarai was sitting by the forest, still spending time with the stray dog that had somehow interrupted her fit of tears and anxiety. She was talking quietly with it, letting the time pass.
  "You're not secretly a animagus are you?" She asked abruptly causing the dog to stop its tail from wagging. "Well," She said answering her own question, "I guess if you were, you'd probably have given yourself a bath wouldn't you?" She laughed quietly to herself.
  The stray once again began wagging its' tail, as he placed his head in Sarai's lap. "It's funny, "She said, "I'm actually terrified of animals. Uncle Remus couldn't get me to write a letter if my life depended on it, my first three months of Hogwarts."
  The dog twitched its ears as she began running her hands through its fur. "But you," She continued, "You really aren't so bad." The dog snorted in reply. "I guess it's alright to say this around you then," Sarai concluded.
"Professor Snape is fucking prick!" She exclaimed angrily. The dog lifted its head in alarm at the girls sudden anger. "I mean come on! How dare he decide to make a lesson plan based off of werewolves!" Sarai vented. "It's sick to taunt Uncle Remus like that! It's like he's trying to get one of the students to figure out here's a werewolf!" Tears began to form in Sarai's eyes again as her anxiety built back up in her chest.
"I don't understand what his problem is with uncle Rem." She threw her hands in the air as tears trickled down her face again. The stray dog licked her hand in comfort as he whined. "And the entire class he kept staring at me, because he knew I knew exactly what he was doing!" Her body began shaking as a quiet sob escaped her lips again. She hugged her knees and curled into a ball. "And I can't do anything about it." She mumbled. "I just have to sit there, and take it! Just sit in that dumb class terrified that one of classmates is going to find out. And then the ministry will find out, and then and then—" she broke out into sobs as she struggled to catch her breath again. "It's bad enough we can barely afford stay afloat as it is! And uncle Remus he—" another sob escaped her lips, "he refuses to take any of the money my mum left me! If everyone found out Dumbledore would sack him and then he'd be jobless."
The stray dog jumped up and began sniffing her head trying to get Sarai to remove her face from atop her knees. As she shook quietly and inhaled desperately for breath. Sarai could feel her anxiety growing more and more desperate as her throat closed up. The stray continued to lick the sides of her cheeks trying desperately to get her to laugh again, raise her head, anything. The trick seemed to work as she giggled slightly at the tickling feeling of it's rough tongue against her face. She once again took deep breaths and quieted her sobbing to hiccups.
"I don't s'ppose you've got a name do you?"
  The dog remained quiet raising his head to lick her hand. "Guess I should give you one then." Sarai declared through sniffles, "How does Shaggy sound?"
The dog nipped at her hand in annoyance. "Ow!" Sarai cried, "Fine, not shaggy then. How does fluffy sound?"  The dog whined in annoyance. Sarai giggled, "Y'know for a dog you're quite picky." She said as she tilted her head to think.
  "Ben?" The dog barked.
"fine no human names then." Sarai agreed, "They're lame anyways."
"Furry?"
the stray nipped her finger again gently this time,
"Shifty?" Sarai suggested, "Since you're always getting into places you don't belong?"
Another nip,
"Ow, you know I'm about to just call you annoying and be done with it." Sarai said.
They stray licked her hand in an apology,  "Fine lets see...." She thought long and hard before a light clicked into her head,  "Oh! I know!" She said excitedly,

"Drama queen!"

--

   The stray in fact, did not like drama queen as a name. But before Sarai could come up with a different name for it, a dementor had passed nearby, scaring the dog away as it ran into the forbidden forest. Sarai urgently collected her things, and made her way hurriedly to the castle to escape any dementors wanting an light snack. She had made her way to the Gryffindor common room when she was attacked by Dean and Seamus.
  "Where have you been!?!" Dean demanded,
"We've been looking all over for you!" Seamus chimed in. "We had to tell Professor but McGonagall we couldn't find you," Seamus admitted.
Sarai felt her anxiety build back up again. She had skipped the remainder of her classes and dinner. "W-what?" She asked weakly.
But before the boys could answer, they were interrupted with a stern
"Miss McKinnon!"
Turning her head, there stood a stern lookingProfessor McGonagall in front of the common room entry way. "Come with me please." She said sharply as she inspected the girl from her spectacles.
The Gryffindor common room burst into quiet 'oohs' that were quickly shut down from the Professor's stern glances around the room. Sarai felt her throat close back up again as she made her way to Professor McGonagall shakily. She followed her out of the common room and through the corridors.
She felt her heart pounding with every step as the two walked together in silence to Professor McGonagall's office. The blood was rushing in her ears while she could not stop shaking. She couldn't read the look the Professor was giving her through the corner of her eyes.
  When the pair finally entered her office, Professor McGongall shut the door behind them. She motioned to the empty seat at her desk.
"Sit." She said not unkindly.
    Sarai hesitantly took a seat, anticipation written all over her face as she twiddled with her hands. She watched Professor McGonagall take a seat at the table across from her. She shifted around uncomfortably as McGonagall slowly pulled out a tea set and a small metal tin from her desk cupboard.
   Sarai could hardly sit still, her leg bouncing up and down as she watched the older woman brew the tea with a wave of her wand. Impatient, Sarai spoke up,
    "Professor, I'm really sorry." She said, voice filled with remorse, "I did not mean to skip my classes, I swear! I just had a bad class with Professor Snape, and it got to me and—-"
"Miss McKinnon," McGonagall interrupted in a firm, yet kind voice, "I did not bring you here to scold you for your lack of attendance."
  Sarai opened her mouth to speak but closed it quickly, dumbfounded. She paused for a moment before beginning to open her mouth to ask a question when McGonagall cut in,
   "Have a biscuit, McKinnon." She interrupted sliding the metal tin towards her. Sarai closed her mouth again. The entire interaction was completely out of character for her. "Go on then." She urged, opening the lid of the tin for her.
     Sarai slowly picked up the closest biscuit she could reach in the tin. McGonagall watched expectantly, so Sarai took a bite out of it. Once her mouth was full, McGonagall began speaking once more,
   "Now it's been brought to my attention from Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Finnegan, that throughout todays Defense Against the Dark Art's lesson, Professor Snape was less than kind over Professor Lupin's teaching skills," The woman peered at her over her spectacles. When Sarai opened her mouth to speak, she continued on, "it has also been brought to my attention," She gave Sarai a sharp look as though to warn her from interrupting, "That Professor Snape decided the topic to be covered in todays class was werewolves."
   At the sound of the word, Sarai flinched as her lip began trembling. The lump in her throat would not go away, no matter how hard she tried to swallow it down. Professor McGonagall observed the actions of the third year, as she continued speaking. "I understand this is a difficult topic for you."
   Sarai bit her lip to keep the tears from brimming in her eyes as she took a deep breath. It came out as a shaky one instead much to Sarai's dismay. McGonagall face softened as she pursed her lips into a thin white line.
"I do understand your frustration, however," she said giving Sarai a pointed look, "running around by yourself during times like these." Her eyes flitted to a newspaper that has Sirius Black's face displayed clearly on the front page, "Does not bode well for any student. Miss Greengrass was kind enough to inform me that she saw you running out to the courtyard this afternoon. Had no one mention your whereabouts, an entire search party would have been released and the entire castle would have been looking for you. "
Sarai winced at the thought,
"I don't condone Severus's actions, however I am not allowed to challenge what he seems fit as a lesson during his classes. I understand this may be hard for you to hear but at the end of the day,  what Professor Snape wants to teach during a lesson is wholly up to him."
"But Professor!" Sarai cried out in exasperation, "he's doing is deliberately to have someone find out Uncle Remus's secret!"
  The fear that Sarai had felt earlier that day became a flood of emotions as she began to ramble between loud gasps, "if someone finds out," gasp, "they're going to tell the entire school," another loud gasp, "and then-
—and then—-"
   She fell back into sobs, lungs burning as she clutched her hair, practically yanking it out. Sarai once again, struggled to breathe tears streaming down her face. McGonagall quickly stood up and made her way around the table to wrap her arms around the girl, giving her a few gentle pats on the shoulder.
"Shhhh, child, shhhh." She said in the most soothing voice she could conjure up.
  Sarai could barely hear anything except the quiet murmurs from Professor McGonagall as her vision blurred from the tears and faded to black.

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