A Halliwell at Hogwarts: The Prisoner of Azkaban

VIII - Thank You, Secret Santa!

When she orbed back to Hogwarts, everybody was already asleep in the castle. She wasn't tired though, so instead of going back to her dormitory, she sat down on the cold snow, near the Black Lake, with a basket full of delicious food her grandmother had made to cheer her up. She wasn't worried about the Dementors as the only feeling she had at the moment was sadness and she doubted Dementors found it inviting.

Nonetheless, she jolted when she heard a sudden sound coming from the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. She had had enough experiences to know that nothing good could come out of there. She took her wand out of her cloak and narrowed her eyes trying to spot whatever the source of the sound was. And then she saw it. It was a dog; a huge, black and malnourished dog...

Persephone blinked, once, twice... then she put away her wand. She hadn't gone mad, she knew the dog wasn't a cute little poodle. Totally the opposite; it was big enough to attack and potentially hurt her, but there were no warning signs of aggression. It just stood by the trees, observing her with the cute tilt of the head that dogs usually did when they were confused. Persephone raised her hand with the palm facing the sky inviting the animal to come closer. The dog didn't move though. It kept observing Persephone from afar as she gave it a reassuring smile. It sniffed the air in her direction and slowly took a hesitant step towards her, soon followed by others.

When the dog was only two steps away from her, Persephone took a proper look at its eyes; they were grey, beautiful and... familiar? She reached its head with her hand and rubbed its fur.

"Hello, buddy..." she whispered.

The dog licked her hand wagging its tail, and Persephone felt the sudden impulse to hug it. And so she did.

"I'm sorry... I know you don't know me, buddy, but let me stay like this for a bit..."

After a while a little meow resounded in the silence of the night. Persephone let go of the dog and reached her hood where her kitten was struggling to get out.

"Hello, Sirius..." she said chuckling. The dog stiffened and looked at Persephone, tilting its head. Persephone showed her little fluffy friend to the dog.

"This is Sirius, my cat. Sirius, this is— Er... the Tramp?" she said, remembering one of her favorite Disney movies. The dog whined in disappointment, making Persephone laugh.

"You don't like it, do you? What about Regulus?"

The dog put a paw on his muzzle.

"You're really picky! Ok, then what about..." She observed the paw and for some reason a name came back to her mind, "Pad..." she murmured.

The dog perked up in excitement, its eyes wide open.

"Do you like 'Padfoot'?" Persephone asked with a warm smile. In response the dog started to bark and to jump around her, wagging its tail madly.

Persephone laughed again and said, "Well, Padfoot it is then! You should really keep it down, though. I'm not supposed to be out here, but you see, I'm not in the mood to sleep..."

Padfoot tilted his hairy head and pushed his wet nose against Persephone's arm. It was absurd, but it was like he was encouraging her to tell him what was bothering her. Persephone sighed. She knew the dog couldn't understand her, but maybe that's what she needed; just to get all out without anybody giving her advises or cursing the source of her frustration — like it had happened respectively with her mother and father.

"I had a fight with my friend... I slapped him..." She made a pause.

"His name's Harry Potter." At this Padfoot's ears perked up. "He thinks that Sirius Black is after him, that he betrayed his parents... and this afternoon he found out that Sirius Black is also his godfather..." Persephone laughed dryly and wrapped her arms around Padfoot, who had let out a quiet whine. "And to top it all... he also discovered that Sirius Black is my uncle—"