Sirius slowly walked through the forbidden forest, studying the dense, thinning foliage. He gazed up, leaves crunching beneath his paws, at the many colours that surrounded him. Reds, greens and yellows all bathed deeply in sunlight.
It was certainly different on this side of the forest than on the Hogwarts side. Memories flooded through Sirius’ brain.
He was a dog chasing through the forbidden forest trying to catch a transformed Remus. He glanced sideways. There running, or galloping alongside him was an elegant brown Stag with glossy fur, James. Behind them, struggling to keep up was a small fat rat, Peter.
The thought of peter sent shockwaves of anger rippling through Sirius’ body. He growled into the distant nothingness and it echoed all around him, through the thick growing trees. Thinking about the trees and their fat peeling brown trunks caused Sirius to remember a long forgotten memory of his childhood.
A small attractive dark haired boy with tanned skin stood laughing as his younger brother half ran half waddled into a small forest chasing after a muggle tennis ball – their father had stolen it – thrown by his brother.
“SIRIUS BLACK! How dare you make you brother run after that putrid thing of your fathers like a poor pathetic muggle!” their mother had yelled from the green and silver (slytherin coloured) picnic blanket from which she was sitting with her husband “ Regulus, you poor baby come here don’t let your mean big brother boss you about, YOUR so much better than him.” Mrs Black finished her speech about how Regulus was better than Sirius. She always did that. From by the forest Sirius scowled at her. He hated his family and he hated these stupid family outings. He spat on the deep green grass and walked off to join his so-called family.
The memory faded. Even when he was 7 Sirius had hated his family and now where were they? Dead every last one of them and Sirius was the last of the Blacks the family might as well die with him for all he cared.
Sirius continued his trek through the forest, gnawing on various berries he found along the way. Soon Sirius came to a small clearing. Bowtruckles dashed about the place going from one tree to another.
He noticed a small cave, draped in spider webs. Sirius knew he must be near the heart of the forest and he had no idea what creatures lived in this part of the forest having only gone into the very outer rim of it before. Sirius never was one to hesitate, as curiosity took the better of him he padded slowly into the dark interior of the web covered cave.
Pawing slightly at the smooth, shiny walls Sirius realised that they to were covered in silky spiders web. But these ones were different these spiders webs - connecting who knows what because the walls had no cracks in them at all – had spiders hanging off them, hairy fat tarantulas all of their eyes following Sirius.
Slowly, the further he got into the cave the bigger the spiders Sirius saw got. It was a good thing he wasn’t scared of spiders!
Now they were bigger Sirius could examine the spiders in more detail. They all looked the same. Long Hair surrounded their round bodies held up by 8 large sturdy legs, also covered all over in hair. Finally their heads. They were unnatural. They ALL had 6, yes 6 large beady eyes and snout like noses and to top off the look small mouths, which all opened when they looked at Sirius and licked their lips like he was a yummy dish cooking on the fire.
Finally Sirius reached the end of the dark cave. A wheezy voice from inside the shadows pierced the silence
“Hagrid long time no see. Whe-“ The voice stopped in mid sentence when he realised he was not talking to his half-giant friend. “Your not Hagrid!” It snarled in anger. The voice then revealed itself from the shadows, revealing itself to be the largest spider yet.
The big spider looked exactly like the others only larger, of course and much much older. It opened its mouth, so similar to the mouths of the others, to speak. This time it roared.
“A dog, just a stray dog easy meat, GET HIM MY CHILDREN!” Just a stray dog? What? Thought Sirius I’ll show him what ‘just a stray dog’ can do!
Anger and Adrenaline coursed through Sirius’ body as he pelted at full force the lead spider. Sirius opened his jaw wide revealing yellowing, strong and ever so slightly pointed teeth.
Sirius spotted his target, the big spiders under belly. He took aim, brown dog eyes filled with concentration and lunged at that abnormally hairy stomach.
Bad move.
Spiders surrounded Sirius at all angles and no matter where he looked Sirius couldn’t find any possible way of escape.
The spiders closed in and the reality of the situation finally got through to Sirius and panic set in. Closing his eyes Sirius thought.
Soon Sirius opened his eyes looked up at the high ceiling, then back at the rapidly incoming spiders then stood on his hind legs and jumped . . .
Sirius soared above the thousands of spiders, body arched giving the impression of a dog in flight.
He cleared the last of the spiders before they knew what had happened and came crashing down to earth near the entrance of the cave. Upon impact Sirius’ legs buckled beneath him and a horrid crack could be herd echoing around the cave.
Limping slightly Sirius retreated, running as fast as you can with a broken leg, towards Hogwarts castle.
Gazing up Sirius noticed the sun had set and had been replaced with a large luminous full moon. Chuckling to himself Sirius wondered how Remus was doing, stars twinkling overhead.
Stepping onto the hogwarts grounds Sirius felt a rush of sadness overwhelm him. It seemed like yesterday to Sirius that he was a student up at the large friendly castle making mischief with fellow marauders Prongs (James), Moony (Remus) and Wormtail (Peter). Now James’ son Harry must be in his 3rd year – Sirius had seen him last August posing as a dog before he got on the night bus – wormtail of course was still here but Sirius had no idea where old Moony was.
Something quick ran passed and caught Sirius’ attention.
There it was again. It was a cat. No. It was a kneezel. Sirius walked towards the kneezel. It’s common knowledge kneezel’s look like cats but have faces like they have been squashed against a brick wall and are a lot smarter.
The kneezel showed himself to Sirius and in the secret language of animals told Sirius all he needed to know.
The animals name was Crookshanks and his owners name was Hermione, a good friend of James’ son and the youngest Weasly, the one who owned Peter whom Crookshanks didn’t like very much. He also knew Sirius was actually human offered to help him with his injury.
Crookshanks wandered off to scavenge some healing material for Sirius, who sat contemplating the day’s events and what to do next. To kill Peter Sirius would need to get into griffindor tower and that would be hard without a password. He would also have to go when everyone was out of the tower and that meant everyone, that ruled out mealtimes. He should also probably go at nighttime to minimise risk of being seen as a human, ruling out lesson time. That left feasts. The next feast would be Halloween in late October. It was a long way away but he would have to wait.
Before he could start planning his crime, Crookshanks returned with bundles of medicine clasped in his jaws surrounded by a mass or ginger fur.
Sirius gratefully took the medicine from Crookshanks who turned on his heel and bounded off towards the castle. Sirius carried the medicine into the forest and morphed into his human self.
Carefully studying the wound Sirius picked out an assortment of magical treatments and attended to it. Within seconds it was gone and Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking about his time at Hogwarts Sirius conjured up a picture of Snivelly (Severus Snape) in his mind. Last he heard Snivelly had converted to the good side and became a spy for Dumbledore, along with the cushy position of potions master and head of slytherin house but this was almost a year before the end of the war and Sirius doubted if he still taught at hogwarts, after all he hated kids!
Sirius lay back on a stone and slowly drifted off into a deep sleep . . .
©Hayley Simon 2005
